HMS Caroline

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 
	(1)  what his policy is on the future of HMS Caroline; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Defence on the future of HMS Caroline.

Owen Paterson: Before HMS Caroline was decommissioned in 2011 she was the second oldest ship in the Royal Navy and the only surviving ship to have fought in the Battle of Jutland. She is therefore of significant historic value and is the only naval vessel in the world to have in situ First World War turbines.
	HMS Caroline has been in Belfast's Alexandra Dock for more than 80 years and was a floating base for the Royal Navy Reserve. I very much support HMS Caroline remaining in Belfast, and the Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire), has had several discussions with the Northern Ireland Minister for Enterprise Trade and Investment Arlene Foster MLA on how best to secure her future and to encourage greater interest in her.
	My right hon. Friend is seeking to meet the Minister for the Armed Forces in early July with Arlene Foster MLA when she is next in London to continue these discussions. I also have had private discussions and intend to visit HMS Caroline shortly.

Oil

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress she has made on the inclusion of a default value for (a) oil shale and (b) other highly polluting crudes in the European fuel quality directive.

Norman Baker: On 23 February member states voted on a European Commission proposal for the implementing measures of article 7a of the Fuel Quality Directive.
	The proposal voted on included default values for petrol and diesel derived from oil shale and other oil feedstocks. At the vote, where the UK abstained, a 'no opinion' result was delivered under the weighted voting procedure known as Qualified Majority Voting. The Commission's proposals will now go to Ministers at Environment Council for consideration.
	The European Commission has announced its intention to complete an impact assessment of the proposed measures. This is a significant and helpful development which will help Member States to better understand the potential financial and environmental impacts of the proposal.
	This Government is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sees the Fuel Quality Directive as a key tool in achieving this aim. We are continuing to seek an effective solution to address the carbon emissions from all highly polluting crudes, including oil shale.

Rolling Stock

Louise Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport for what reason the number of new rail carriages and the number which would represent additional capacity and net additions her Department's press release of 26 November 2010, More than 2,100 new carriages for rail travellers as Government unveils rail investment package, set a target of over 2,100 new rail carriages by 2019 in paragraph 1.17 of her Department's publication, Reforming our Railways: Putting the Customer First, CM 8313, is different; and if she will make a statement.

Theresa Villiers: The Department for Transport's November 2010 Press Notice announced 2100 new carriages for the rail network following the Secretary of State for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Justine Greening), confirmation that, in spite of the fiscal deficit this Government inherited and already having committed to completing Crossrail, the Thameslink project would go ahead in its entirety and that a further 650 carriages would also be added to the network to ease overcrowding as part of the HLOS programme.
	The March 2012 Rail Command Paper set out that the Department has allocated funding for approximately 2700 new rail carriages, 600 more than referred to in the November 2010 Press Notice. This follows subsequent announcements on rolling stock, including in relation to the Intercity Express programme.
	The variation in the number of net additional carriages between the two publications relates to ongoing commercial negotiations and agreement on final deployment. It was made clear in the November 2010 Press Notice that this figure would fluctuate as commercial negotiations proceeded. Our current view is that this is in the range of 1800 to 1850 vehicles.

Badgers: Birds

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment her Department has made of the effect of badgers on ground-nesting birds.

Richard Benyon: The most recent relevant research by my Department is a report by the Central Science Laboratory (now Food and Environment Research Agency) in 2007, The ecological consequences of removing badgers from an ecosystem.' This report looked at the effect on ground-nesting birds, among other species, of the randomised badger culling trials. It is available on the DEFRA research web-pages as project ZF0531.

Cetaceans: Japan

Lindsay Roy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent representations she has made to the Japanese government 
	(1)  on the annual killing of dolphins by Japanese fishermen;
	(2)  on Japanese whaling activities in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary; and if she will make a statement.

Richard Benyon: Through the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the global convention for whaling, the UK regularly states its opposition to Japan's so-called 'scientific' whaling in North Pacific and Antarctic waters.
	The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the hon. Member for Taunton Deane (Mr Browne) raised UK concerns in relation to Japanese whaling on a visit to Japan in May. British officials also regularly meet with Japanese officials both in London and Tokyo to express deep concern over whaling and the hunting of dolphins.
	I will be attending this year's IWC meeting in July (IWC64) to demonstrate the UK Government's commitment to the work of the IWC, and our support for the moratorium on whaling.
	The Japanese Government is in no doubt as to the strength of feeling in this country about the killing of all cetaceans, and of the UK Government's policy. The UK Government will continue to make our opposition on these issues clear to all whaling countries at every appropriate opportunity.

Fisheries

Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with reference to the outcome of the Agriculture and Fisheries Ministerial Council held on 12 June 2012 in Brussels, if she will ensure that no further restrictions are imposed on fishermen in terms of days at sea limitations; and if she will make a statement.

Richard Benyon: I provided a statement on 14 June 2012, Official Report, column 467, updating the House on the outcome of the June Fisheries Council and the progress achieved in the negotiations on the reform of the common fisheries policy.
	Alongside reform negotiations the UK has been pushing for review and amendment of the Cod Recovery Plan—a long-term recovery plan covering cod in North sea, Irish sea and west of Scotland. The UK successfully secured a review of this plan and, in particular, the application of days at sea restrictions on the UK fleet. Work is ongoing, but the UK is actively engaging with the Commission to ensure our concerns are heard and addressed.

Innovation

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent steps her Department has taken to promote innovation.

Richard Benyon: Innovation is essential to enhancing the competitiveness and resilience of all of the sectors DEFRA works with. In the agricultural sector, for example, we welcome the emphasis in the CAP Reform proposals on stimulating innovation.
	In March, we held, in partnership with the Technology Strategy Board, an 'Innovation for Growth' Summit for the agri-food sector to raise awareness of the potential for growth from innovation and the support available, which included a competition with £500,000 worth of prizes for Small and Medium Enterprises to develop innovative ideas. Competition grant award winners will be announced in early July.
	The Food and Green Economy Programme established DEFRA's Innovation Hub as a mechanism to engage and inspire UK businesses to share learning and ideas on innovation, e.g. The Hub organised a workshop titled 'Catalyst Workshop to explore the opportunities of a circular economy' with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation—February 2012. The Hub is currently engaging with individual businesses and business groups (e.g. BRC and CBI) to identify, discuss and address barriers to business innovation, and will be holding further events in 2012.
	The Food and Green Economy Programme also set up and funds the UK's National Contact Point (NCP) on Eco-Innovation. The role of a NCP is to provide advice and individual assistance to support SMEs and improve the dissemination and exploitation of their project by bridging the gap between research and innovation, helping them to expand their businesses and raise their competitiveness in the world markets. The NCP is co-funded with the Technology Strategy Board and provides services to increase access to EU funding programmes.
	Additionally, the Food and Green Economy Programme is currently working with (and supporting financially) the Green Alliance to establish a Circular Economy Task Force. This Task Force will bring together interested businesses and business groups to provide a mechanism to further develop links between Government, business and other organisations to address resource opportunities and concerns, to disseminate leadership thinking and best practice and to provide a forum for policy innovation.
	DEFRA organised and hosted the 10(th) European Forum on Eco-Innovation titled ‘Towards a Resource-Efficient Economy: From Policy to Action’ in 2011. These Forums bring together key players in business, academia, finance, policy and green groups to encourage innovation through cross fertilisation between disciplines and sectors. The aim is to identify and prioritise the key issues that need to be addressed by Government and EU action.
	The Technology Strategy Board (TSB), DEFRA and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council co-funds the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Innovation Platform, worth £90 million over five years which matches funding by industry. The TSB's contribution of £50 million is new investment in innovation.
	DEFRA funds the Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP). WRAP works in partnership, helping businesses and the general public to reduce waste, to use more recycled material, and recycle more. As part of WRAP'S Retail Innovation Programme is a Water Minimisation Innovation Fund, aimed at providing support for retail supply chain packaging optimisation and innovative design projects.

Meetings

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on what dates (a) she, (b) Ministers and (c) senior officials in her Department have met representatives of (i) the Institute for Public Policy Research, (ii) the Taxpayers' Alliance, (iii) the Institute of Economic Affairs, (iv) ResPublica, (v) the Centre for Social Justice and (vi) Policy Exchange; and if she will publish the minutes and agendas of these meetings.

Richard Benyon: I met representatives of Policy Exchange in November 2010. This was an introductory meeting, and no formal minutes were taken. I also spoke at a Policy Exchange event, in July 2011 on the subject of protecting rivers and wider water issues. Details are available on the Policy Exchange website.
	No other meetings between either DEFRA Ministers or senior officials in core DEFRA (Permanent Secretary and Directors-General) and representatives of above organisations have been held since May 2010.
	All meetings held by Ministers and the Permanent Secretary with external organisations are published regularly on the Department's website:
	http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/about/who/ministers/transparency
	and
	http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/about/who/management/

UN Conference On Sustainable Development

Ben Gummer: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will take steps to ensure that children are a focus of the UK's negotiating position at the Rio+20 Summit in June 2012.

Richard Benyon: The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Meriden (Mrs Spelman), has consulted extensively with civil society in the run up to Rio+20, including groups specifically focused on children and youth. This has been an essential part of informing the Government's negotiating position at Rio+20.
	The Secretary of State recently attended an event organised by UNICEF which focused on children and young people's ambitions for Rio+20, and was attended by the British Youth Council, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, and other young people's organisations. This manner of engagement has continued at the Rio+20 Conference, where the Secretary of State has again met with representatives from these groups.

Asylum

Andrea Leadsom: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers were transferred from the UK to each other EU member state in each year from 1994 to 2002.

Damian Green: The information requested is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Asylum seekers transferred from the UK to other EU member states (2) 
			 1997 (1)103 
			 1998 849 
			 1999 838 
			 2000 703 
			 2001 600 
			 2002 1,060 
			 (1) Figures are only available from the date the Dublin Convention was ratified one September 1997. (2) The figures are based on management information data that is not quality assured under National Statistics protocols. The figures do not constitute part of National Statistics and should be treated as provisional. Figures for 2011 are not currently available, nor has it been possible within the time frame to provide a breakdown by member state.

Crime

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many hate crimes related to gender were recorded between 2007 and 2012; and what proportion of the total number of hate crimes this constituted in each year.

Lynne Featherstone: holding answer 18 June 2012
	Police forces began the formal collection of monitored hate crime strands in April 2011 and data for 2011-12 will be published later this year. Gender-related hate crime is not one of the centrally monitored strands for which data are collected.
	Findings from the 2009-10 and 2010-11 British Crime Survey on the extent of and perceptions towards hate crime were published for the first time in March, I will place a copy in the Library of the House, alternatively they are also available at:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/hosb0612/

Cybercrime

Bob Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she is taking to promote greater international cooperation and cross-border law enforcement in relation to cyber crime.

James Brokenshire: The Government has opted into the EU directive on attacks on information systems, and we have expressed our support for the EU cybercrime centre at Europol, which we believe will help improve the effectiveness of EU cross-border police work against cyber criminals.
	We have worked closely with the Council of Europe to promote the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime globally, and particularly to encourage countries from outside Europe to accede to it.
	The new National Cyber Crime Unit in the National Crime Agency will collaborate proactively with international partners, both to enhance existing relationships and to build new partnerships.

DNA: Databases

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many individuals are listed in the National DNA Database.

James Brokenshire: As at 31 March 2012, there were 6,969,396 DNA profile records on the National DNA Database (NDNAD) taken by all UK police forces, which relate to an estimated 5,950,612 individuals. At the same date, there were 6,512,884 profile records taken by police forces in England and Wales, which relate to an estimated 5,570,284 individuals.
	The number of individuals is estimated because a proportion of DNA profiles held on the NDNAD are replicates, that is a person's profile has been loaded on more then one occasion, for example because a person gave different names on separate arrests. The presence of these replicate profiles on the NDNAD does not impact on the effectiveness and integrity of the database.
	The data provided is management information and has not been formally assessed for compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. As part of the implementation of the Protection of Freedoms Act, work is under way to enable the removal from the National DNA Database of records relating to those without convictions in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

Entry Clearances: Overseas Students

Michael Connarty: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which (a) universities, (b) colleges of further education and (c) private providers have lost UK Border Agency highly trusted sponsor status since September 2010.

Damian Green: No universities have lost UK Border Agency Highly Trusted Sponsor Status since September 2010. There have been 33 further education colleges that have lost their UK Border Agency Highly Trusted Sponsor Status since September 2010.
	These are:
	Abingdon and Witney College
	Askham Bryan College
	Barnet and Southgate College
	Blackburn College
	Bolton College
	Brooklands College
	Carshalton College
	City College Brighton and Hove
	College of North West London
	Coulsdon College
	Croydon College
	Cumbernauld College
	Greenwich Community College
	King George V College
	Kirklees College
	Leicester College
	Lowestoft College
	Motherwell College
	Newham College of Further Education
	North West Regional College
	Oatridge College
	Plumpton College
	Reid Kerr College
	Sandwell College
	South Birmingham College
	South Nottingham College
	South Tyneside College
	Southern Regional College
	St Vincent College
	Stow College
	Varndean College
	Worcester Sixth Form College
	49 private providers have lost UK Border Agency Highly Trusted Sponsor Status since September 2010.
	These are:
	A+ English Ltd
	Abacus College
	Access College London
	Azad University (IR) in Oxford
	Basil Paterson College
	Bedfordshire College
	Birmingham International College
	Bournemouth Business School International
	Cambridge Seminars College
	Care in Hand LTD
	Christ the Redeemer College
	City Banking College Limited
	Colchester English Study Centre
	ELT-Banbury Ltd
	Embassy CES Brighton
	English for Everyone Ltd/IH Aberdeen Ltd
	English in York
	Foyle Language School
	Harrow Academy UK
	Institute of St Anselm
	Lake School of English Oxford
	LAL Language Centres (Torbay) Ltd
	Language Studies International
	Language Studies International, London Central
	Le Cordon Bleu Limited
	Leicester Commercial College
	London Hotel School
	London School of Beauty & Make-up
	Loxdale English Centre/Swedish Folk High School
	Margate Language Centre
	Maria Montessori Training Organisation (The)
	Midlands Academy of Business & Technology
	MM Oxford Study Services
	Northumbria School of English
	Olivet English Language School
	Princes College School of English
	Ray Cochrane CIDESCO International Beauty School
	Riviera English School
	Sassoon Academy
	Shane Global Language Centres
	Sophies Recruitment Services Ltd
	Stafford House School of English
	Stanton School of English
	Surrey Language Centre
	The New School of English Ltd
	Twin Towers English College
	University of Leicester International Study Centre
	University of Wales International Study Centre
	Westminster Academy
	Some institutions are seeking to reverse these decisions through current representations. However, some institutions will have reapplied for Highly Trusted Status since revocation and some will be able to reapply for Highly Trusted Sponsor Status six months after the decision to remove it.

Extradition: USA

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent discussions she had with her US counterpart on the UK-US extradition treaty and the release of (a) Gary McKinnon, (b) Richard O'Dwyer and (c) Christopher Tappin.

Damian Green: Home Office Ministers have meetings with a wide variety of national and international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such meetings.

Immigrants: Tuberculosis

Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she plans to take to promote the accessibility and affordability of tuberculosis screening and treatment in poorly-resourced high-incidence countries.

Damian Green: The UK Government provides Official Development Assistance to developing countries to tackle tuberculosis through bilateral and multilateral channels as part of the national governments' overall health policy. This includes support to help increase access to and use effective diagnosis and treatment of TB, including TB-HIV and drug resistant TB; to invest in research and product development into more effective diagnosis, treatment and vaccines; to support countries to strengthen health systems to deliver quality TB programmes; and to work with our partners to tackle the risk factors for TB, including poverty and malnutrition.
	Beyond this, the UK Government has no plans to provide additional support to pre-migration tuberculosis screening and treatment in high-incidence countries. However, the UK Government, through the UK Border Agency, will continue to work in conjunction with international partners to share screening facilities that are subject to established quality assurance processes. In most high incidence countries there is existing widespread coverage and choice of facilities, especially within large conurbations. Where screening provision is relatively limited the UK Government will seek to extend the availability of accredited providers. The process for accreditation and review will, where possible, be aligned with that of our partners to ensure consistency and minimise screening costs for the applicant.

Immigration

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many legacy cases have been (a) processed and (b) were outstanding in each month since their transfer to the Case Assurance and Audit Unit.

Damian Green: The information requested is not held on a month by month basis, however as reported to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 3 May 2012 the Case Assurance and Audit Unit has resolved 12,600 asylum legacy cases since their transfer from Case Resolution Directorate.
	As reported, at the end of March 2012, there were 80,000 cases in the asylum controlled archive and 21,000 live cases.

Immigration Controls

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what analysis her Department carried out into the demographic groups that will be most affected by an increase in the minimum income requirement for immigration sponsors.

Damian Green: The Government published a detailed Policy Equality Statement on 13 June, which assesses the impacts of the new financial requirement. This is available in the Library of the House.

National Policing Improvement Agency

Andrew Love: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much the National Police Improvement Agency has received in income for the training provided for the personnel of (a) overseas police forces and (b) other Government departments in each of the last three years; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Herbert: The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) has received the following income from the delivery of training to customers from overseas police forces as follows:
	
		
			 Financial year Overseas income £ million 
			 2008-09 3.75 
			 2009-10 3.39 
			 2010-11 4.60 
			 2011-12 3.35 
		
	
	The figures above only account for the International Academy Bramshill.
	The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) has received income from the delivery of training to customers in other UK Government Departments and Agencies as follows:
	
		
			  £ million 
			 2010-11 1.9 
			 2011-12 1.4 
		
	
	The NPIA does not hold data concerning income received from other Government Departments for 2009-10 in a format which allows the information requested to be extracted without incurring disproportionate cost.

National Policing Improvement Agency

Andrew Love: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether staff transferring to the new Police Professional Body from the National Police Improvement Agency maintain their civil service status; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Herbert: The National Police Improvement Agency staff transferring to the Police Professional Body, along with colleagues moving to the Police ICT Company and the Home Office, will be moving under the Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment Act (TUPE). This affords protection of all existing terms and conditions unless changes are agreed with appropriate staff representatives.

Police

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what meetings and discussions on the setting up of a professional body for policing were attended by (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department in (i) March, (ii) April and (iii) May 2012; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Herbert: Home Office Ministers have regular meetings with officials and others as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such meetings.
	We will update Parliament shortly about our progress on the creation of the police professional body and the new police ICT company.

Police: Essex

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether her Department holds any information on the number of chief constables of Essex Police who took early retirement and the reason in each case since December 1999.

Nick Herbert: There have been no chief constables of Essex police who took early retirement since December 1999.

Procurement

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total (a) number and (b) value of contracts issued by (i) her Department and (ii) bodies for which she is responsible which were awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises was in the latest period for which figures are available.

Damian Green: The Home Office's spend with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been reported in the Cabinet Office report, 'Making Government business more accessible to SMEs—One Year On'. A copy will be placed in the Library of the House, or is available at:
	http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/making-government-business-more-accessible-smes-one-year

The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Notification Requirements) (England and Wales) Regulations

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to bring into force the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Notification Requirements) (England and Wales) Regulations 2012.

Lynne Featherstone: It is anticipated that these Regulations will come into force in summer 2012, subject to parliamentary business.

Broadband

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to (a) raise awareness of the Connecting Europe broadband facility and (b) support British organisations bidding for funding.

Edward Vaizey: The proposed Connecting Europe Facility, and the associated draft regulation setting out objectives and guidelines for trans-European telecommunications networks (ETENs), is subject to ongoing EU negotiations, including negotiations on the Multi-annual Financial Framework for the period 2014 to 2020, the proposed timeframe for the Facility. As such there are as yet no procedures for bidding for funds.

Euro 2012

Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to ensure the security of English football supporters at Euro 2012.

Jeremy Browne: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
	Security is the responsibility of the Governments of Poland and Ukraine as the hosts of Euro 2012, working with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). We have maintained a dialogue with the two host governments through our embassies, our respective police services and expert-level contacts to share information and best practice on security at major events, including bespoke training on policing football matches.
	In addition, we have put in place arrangements to provide British nationals with consular services during the tournament, drawing on lessons learned from previous European championships and World cups. We have reinforced our consular teams in both countries, including through a mobile team of consular specialists who will be present in cities whenever England play. We have also worked closely with our partners in the Football Association, the Football Supporters Federation, the England Band and other Government Departments to ensure that England fans have access to the best possible information on personal safety.
	Under the authority of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), a delegation of UK police officers has been deployed to both Ukraine and Poland during the tournament to support and advise the host police in venue cities on how best to police England supporters; these officers also provide a reassuring presence for the supporters.

Heritage Lottery Fund: Northern Ireland

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport which social investment finance intermediary has been chosen to facilitate access to the Heritage Lottery Fund in Northern Ireland.

John Penrose: The information requested is not held by this Department. Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of the Heritage Lottery Fund to respond directly to the hon. Member for Belfast North.
	Copies of the reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Telecommunications: Hearing Impairment

Gemma Doyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport with reference to the answer of 16 April 2012, Official Report, column 8W, on the e-Accessibility Forum video relay sub-group, if he will now publish the list of members and the date of the group's first meeting.

Edward Vaizey: The first meeting of the eAccessibility Forum relay services working group is due to be held on 5 July 2012. The current membership comprises: BT, Intellect, PhoneAbility, Positive Signs, Sign Solutions, Significant, Soreiison, Telecommunications Advisory Group, Mobile Broadband Group, UK Competitive Telecommunications Association, UK Council on Deafness, Sign on Screen, Customer Contact Association, Cabinet Office, DWP ODI and Ofcom.

Marriage: Homosexuality

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities what legal advice she has received on the implications for religious organisations of the legal status of same-sex marriage under European Human Rights legislation.

Lynne Featherstone: The Government consultation on enabling same-sex couples to have a civil marriage ceremony closed on 14 June 2012.
	Legal advice is by law subject to legal professional privilege. For this reason the Government do not normally comment on what legal advice it has received on any matter.
	No religious organisation will be forced to host ceremonies for same-sex couples as a result of these proposals.

BBC: Disclosure of Information

Paul Uppal: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer of 27 March 2012, Official Report, column 1063W, on statistics, 
	(1)  if he will request a formal pre-release investigation into the tweeting by a BBC journalist on 2 December 2012 of the section 16 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 notification letter issued by the UK Statistics Authority prior to it being issued on 6 December 2012;
	(2)  whether any staff of the UK Statistics Authority communicated to the BBC the intention to make a notification under section 16 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 prior to the formal notification on 6 December 2012.

Nick Hurd: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Cabinet Office.
	The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Andrew Dilnot, dated 18 June 2012
	As Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, I am replying to your questions asking (i) for a formal pre-release investigation into the tweeting by a BBC journalist on 2 December 2012 of the section 16 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 notification letter issued by the UK Statistics Authority prior to it being issued on 6 December 2012
	and (ii) whether any staff of the UK Statistics Authority communicated to the BBC the intention to make a notification under section 16 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 prior to the formal notification on 6 December 2012.
	In respect of (i) the “Pre-Release to Official Statistics Order 2008” sets out the rules governing access to official statistics in their final form before they are released and published. It applies only to official statistics in their final form, and therefore this is not relevant in the context of this matter.
	In respect of (ii), when considering such matters the Authority's staff will provide officials in the relevant department(s) with information on the Authority's intentions. Officials at the Department for Communities and Local Government were therefore informed in respect of the Authority's intentions.
	The Authority's staff will respond similarly to enquiries from interested parties, and following a subsequent enquiry to the Authority representatives of the BBC were advised of the Authority's intention to write to Ministers under section 16 of the 2007 Act.
	On 28 March 2012 the Minister for Housing and Local Government replied to the Authority's letter of notification, indicating that he was minded to submit such a request for assessment later this year. The Minister's reply was laid before Parliament under the provisions of section 16 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, and a copy has been placed on the Authority's website.
	http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/reports---correspondence/correspondence/index.html

Betting Shops

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent representations he has received on the use class of betting shops.

Bob Neill: holding answer 14 June 2012
	The recent representations on betting shops that we have received have included ones from a number of hon. Members, the Mayor of London and the Local Government Association. The Department has also met with the Association of Bookmakers as part of roundtable evidence gathering discussions with regards to the wider review of how change of use is managed in the planning system.

Council Housing

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of how many council tenants sub-let their council homes; and what statistical basis his Department uses to make such an estimate.

Grant Shapps: The Audit Commission estimated in 2009 there were at least 50,000 unlawfully occupied social homes in England; however, it has noted:
	'the need for more research to get a clearer picture of the prevalence and cost of housing tenancy fraud, particularly for the three-quarters of social housing outside London'
	(Audit Commission, “Protecting the Public Purse 2010—Fighting fraud against local government and local taxpayers”, October 2010, p.17).
	The National Fraud Authority has noted that discussions are under way to update these figures (National Fraud Authority, “Annual Fraud Indicator”, March 2012, p.34).
	More recent analysis carried out by consultancy Experian Public Services suggests the figure could be more than 150,000 in practice (“Experian press release”, 12 September 2011).
	Further research by housing fraud specialists, HJK Associates, has suggested that 160,000 social housing tenants in London alone may be subletting their properties (cited in The Sunday Telegraph, 22 January 2012).
	We have recently consulted on proposals that would strengthen legislation around social housing fraud. A summary of responses will be published in due course.

Families: Peterborough

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the indicative value of the cash sum is that will be provided to Peterborough City Council under the Troubled Families programme for (a) 2012-13 and (b) 2013-14; and if he will make a statement.

Bob Neill: Peterborough city council has agreed to work with 450 troubled families over the course of the programme, which runs from 2012-13 to 2014-15. The breakdown of funding they receive in each year of the programme will depend on the results that are achieved in turning round the lives of those families, and the proportion of the number of families Peterborough agrees to work with in each year. More information can be found in the Troubled Families programme financial framework, a copy of which is in the Library of the House.
	In addition to this funding, Peterborough will receive £100,000 in each year of the programme to co-ordinate the troubled families programme locally.

Fire Services

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the fire and rescue resource review, what steps his Department is taking to provide additional funding for local authorities that have a lower ability to raise revenue through council tax.

Bob Neill: Following the Local Government Resource Review we intend to introduce Business Rate Retention for all local authorities, including Fire and Rescue authorities, in 2013-14. We will ensure a stable starting point for all local authorities at the start of the rates retention scheme. The calculation of authorities' baseline funding level using formula grant figures, which take in to account ability to raise council tax, will provide greater stability for authorities. The Government will publish a consultation document on the details of the scheme this summer.

Housing: Finance

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what expenditure his Department has incurred on (a) NewBuy Guarantee, (b) Get Britain Building Fund, (c) FirstBuy and (d) New Homes Bonus to date.

Grant Shapps: The information is as follows:
	(a) The NewBuy Guarantee scheme has incurred no expenditure to date; we would not expect it to given the nature of the initiative, as outlined in the Financial Minute which was laid before the House on 19 March.
	(b) The Homes and Communities Agency has incurred expenditure of £2.3 million to date on Get Britain Building; as I outlined in my answer to the hon. Member's question of 18 June, Official Report, 687W, the programme funding is expected to be used, in the two years of 2012-13 and 2013-14. The prospectus for the investment fund was published on 22 December 2011, which sought expressions of interest from developers by 30 January 2012.
	(c) The Homes and Communities Agency has incurred expenditure of £56.9 million on FirstBuy to the end of March 2012; housing statistics published on 12 June show there were 2,994 affordable homes completed under the scheme in 2011-12;
	(d) My Department has provided £300.4 million to date in New Homes Bonus grants to local authorities. This includes rewarding councils for delivering nearly 137,000 more homes from October 2010 to October 2011 and bringing a further 22,000 back into use. The total to be distributed in 2011-12 and 2012-13 will be £633.2 million.
	These figures include programme expenditure but exclude administrative expenditure and staff costs.

Mayors: Referendums

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his most recent estimate is of the total cost to the public purse of the Mayoral referendums held on 3 May 2012.

Greg Clark: We have made no further estimate of the cost of the mayoral referendums following those set out in the Impact Assessment for the Localism Bill published in January 2011. The councils concerned are now establishing the costs of holding referendums, an exercise of genuine localism in which over a million people took part.

Planning Permission

Sheryll Murray: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) core strategies and (b) local development frameworks under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 were adopted by April 2010.

Bob Neill: By the end of April 2010, 50 core strategies had been adopted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. Information about other types of plans produced for local development frameworks are available from individual council websites.

Academies: Special Educational Needs

Julian Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for Education 
	(1)  what comparative assessment he has made of the proportion of children with statements of special educational needs (SEN) who have been refused a place at an Academy school and the proportion of children with statements of SEN who have been refused a place at other non fee-paying schools;
	(2)  what estimate he has made of the number of children with statements of special educational needs who have been refused a place at an Academy school;
	(3)  what process exists for children with statements of Special Educational Needs who have been denied a place at an Academy school to appeal against this decision.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 11 June 2012
	Local authorities are responsible for deciding whether to name an Academy or other school in a pupil's Statement. Where there are disagreements between a local authority and an Academy about whether an Academy should be named these can be referred to the Department for resolution. Fewer than 20 such cases have been referred to the Department over the past year.
	This Government has sought to address the situation that existed in 2010, whereby pupils with Special Educational Needs did not enjoy the same rights if their parents wished them to attend an Academy as would have been the case if their parents wished them to attend a maintained school. Academies opened since the Academies Act 2010 have a clause in their Funding Agreement that means the process for appeals mirrors exactly that for maintained schools. If a local authority decides not to name an Academy in a statement, against the wishes of the parents/carers, the parents/carers of the child should, in almost all cases, be able to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability). There are a very small number of Academies with older style funding agreements that do not reflect the changes we introduced in 2010. We would always expect these Academies to act reasonably, and we are considering whether any further action is required to ensure that every child with SEN is treated fairly.

Financial Services: Education

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will increase the personal finance elements of mathematics teaching in schools to emphasise how mathematics relates to real life decisions.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 18 June 2012
	On 11 June, the Government published a draft primary Programme of Study for mathematics as part of the review of the National Curriculum. The draft gives greater emphasis to the development of written methods, including long, multiplication and division, and includes more challenging content including fractions, decimals and negative numbers. Pupils will be taught arithmetic using money and will solve problems that relate to real life decisions to provide a more secure foundation for finance education in secondary school. There will be a formal public consultation on the draft programmes towards the end of the year and the final programmes of study will be introduced in primary schools from September 2014. Finance education is currently taught as part of Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education. We are looking at the quality of finance education as part of a review of PSHE to determine how we can improve the quality of all PSHE teaching.
	An announcement in relation to the secondary curriculum will be made in due course.

Science and Mathematics: GCE A-level

Esther McVey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to sustain the number of students studying science and mathematics at A level.

Nick Gibb: The main step we are taking is to improve the quality of teaching. We are providing up to £135 million over the current spending review period to improve science and mathematics education. We have announced plans to recruit more specialist science and mathematics teachers by offering bursaries of up to £20,000 for the best graduates. This is supplemented by conversion courses to provide general science graduates and teachers with specialist knowledge to enable them to teach single science subjects. We are funding professional development for science and mathematics teachers through the network of science learning centres and the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics. Our Triple Science Support Programme supports schools to offer three separate science GCSEs, which in turn enables more young people to progress to take science A Levels. The Stimulating Physics Network encourages more young people to study physics at GCSE and beyond. In the last year we have increased our funding for the Further Mathematics Support Programme, which has helped schools to encourage take up of Further Mathematics A Level.

Young People: Management Skills

Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will take steps to ensure students become familiar with the concept of management at an early age.

Nick Gibb: The core principle of enterprise and Business education for young people is to ensure that they are well equipped in facing the challenges of the world of work, employability and entrepreneurship, resulting in a positive outcome for pupils and employers. Increasing schools' autonomy and reducing unnecessary burdens on schools is central to our aim and, as part of the Growth Review, we have been talking to employers about how the education and skills system can best contribute to economic growth.
	Enterprise and Business education is part of the economic well-being strand of personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education and schools incorporate and embed enterprise education across the wider curriculum.
	The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is developing online resources for teachers that will enable them to set up school businesses and access support from local enterprise champions.

Electricity Generation: Fires

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many electrical substation fires there have been in each of the last five years; and what reason was given for each such fire.

Charles Hendry: DECC only has data for supply interruptions reportable under the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002. These are interruptions affecting 20 megawatts of demand for three minutes or longer, or interruptions affecting 5,000 consumers or five megawatts of demand for one hour or longer. According to our records the number of reports due to substation fires in each of the last five years were:
	
		
			  Number of reports Reasons 
			 2007-08 3 Transformer failure, switchgear failure, unknown 
			 2008-09 4 Two transformer failure, switchgear failure, slow fault clearance 
			 2009-10 3 All three were cable failures 
			 2010-11 1 Switchgear failure 
			 2011-12 2 Cable failure, switchgear failure.

Electricity: Billing

Chris Heaton-Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate his Department made of the effect of renewables on households' electricity bills (a) in November 2011 and (b) in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Charles Hendry: The Renewables Obligation (RO) and small-scale Feed-in-Tariff scheme (FITs) place the obligation of supporting investment in renewable electricity generation on energy suppliers. It is expected that energy suppliers will pass the cost of these obligations onto their various energy customers (i.e. households and businesses) through their electricity bills.
	Ofgem publish annual reports for both the RO and FITs which include actual cost data. The latest year for which data is available is 2010-11. The estimated average amount added directly to a household electricity bill in 2010-11 is £18 for the RO and 20p for FITs.
	These estimates are based on annual costs of the RO and FITs from Annual Reports published by Ofgem(1) multiplied by the share of total UK electricity sales in 2010-11 accounted for by households(2) divided by the number of UK households in 2010-11(3). The actual cost of the RO and FITs on each household's energy bill in a given year may differ depending on how energy suppliers pass on the costs of the policy to their customers.
	(1) Calculated according to the DECC-HMT definition of RO support costs, i. e. RO support cost for year = Obligation level for year (in ROCs) x RO buyout price for year.
	(2) Energy Trends table 5.5, available at:
	http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/statistics/energy_stats/source/electricity/electricity.aspx
	(3) CLG projections.
	To help ensure that policies achieve their objectives cost effectively and affordably the Government introduced a framework to control levy funded spending by DECC at Budget 2011. This framework, covering the RO, FITs and the Warm Home Discount, forms part of the Government's public spending framework which the Treasury has responsibility for.
	The Government has also been reviewing the levels of support ('RO bands') under the Renewables Obligation, with a focus on delivering renewable energy to help meet the 2020 renewables target in a cost-effective manner in order to minimise costs to consumers. In addition, the Government is introducing a tariff degression mechanism for solar PV under FITs, which will keep the long-term costs of FITs down.

Energy Supply

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the effect of the implementation of provisions of the Draft Energy Bill on the workload of (a) Ofgem and (b) the National Grid.

Charles Hendry: Ofgem will play an important role in the implementation of the reforms. As an independent regulator, it is for Ofgem to plan its workload and resourcing.
	The precise role of the System Operator, National Grid, in delivering Electricity Market Reform will be defined as my Department designs the detail of the EMR mechanisms. It is difficult at this point in time to determine the impact on National Grid's workload.
	The Department continues to work with both Ofgem and National Grid to ensure that staff, resources and infrastructure are in place for introduction of the reforms in 2014. A key objective is to ensure value for money for consumers.

Energy Supply

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change with reference to page 3, Draft Energy Bill Annex A, entitled Institutional Framework: Government, the System Operator and Ofgem, what estimate he has made of the likely administration cost to be incurred by the National Grid as a result of its role as a Contracts for Difference System Operator.

Charles Hendry: The Department continues to work with both Ofgem and National Grid to ensure that staff, resources and infrastructure are in place for introduction of the reforms in 2014, a key objective of which is value for money for consumers.
	The precise role of the System Operator, National Grid, in delivering Electricity Market Reform will be defined as the Department designs the detail of the EMR mechanisms. There is therefore a degree of uncertainty attached to current cost estimates while, for instance, IT costs are still to be determined.
	For this reason, and to ensure commercial confidentiality while agreement over costs is reached, we are not currently in a position to make such estimates public.

Energy Supply

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether he plans to provide additional funding to Ofgem as a result of the additional functions proposed to be allocated to it under the provisions of the Draft Energy Bill.

Charles Hendry: The Draft Energy Bill does not confer any new functions on Ofgem. Any additional funding for Ofgem will come from licence revenues, not from Government.

Energy Supply

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change with reference to page 4, Annex A, of the Draft Energy Bill, when he plans to publish his Department's joint report with Ofgem on possible conflicts of interest with National Grid's existing roles in the electricity market and its new role under the proposals in the Draft Bill.

Charles Hendry: Jointly with Ofgem, my Department published on 22 May 2012 a response to an initial stakeholder consultation which can be found at:
	www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/consultations/emr_coi/emr_coi.aspx
	Officials within the Department continue to work with Ofgem to assess the scale and extent of any possible conflicts of interest associated with National Grid's other roles in the electricity market.
	Further stakeholder engagement will be held before the end of the year before publishing a final report, expected in late 2012.
	The Draft Energy Bill currently undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny by the Energy and Climate Change Committee contains powers to act to mitigate any conflicts of interest. The conclusions of the joint DECC-Ofgem report will inform whether and how these powers will be used, if necessary.

Energy Supply

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change with reference to page 13, Annex A, of the Draft Energy Bill, if he will publish the analysis from the system operator in autumn 2012.

Charles Hendry: The Government will publish the first delivery plan in 2013, which will be informed by evidence and analysis provided by the system operator. The Government will commission the analysis in autumn 2012 and the system operator will report to the Government in mid-2013. In order to ensure transparency, I intend to consult on the draft delivery plan as appropriate, for instance on the cost data and analysis underpinning the draft strike prices.

Energy Supply

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change with reference to page 13, Annex A, of the Draft Energy Bill, whether the system operator has begun the process of gathering evidence.

Charles Hendry: The system operator is currently working to review its analytical capabilities in advance of initiating its work to gather evidence. The Government expects to commission the system operator's analysis in the autumn, although the system operator is expected to start gathering data (e.g. on technology costs) in advance of this.

Energy Supply

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change 
	(1)  with reference to page 22, Annex A, of the Draft Energy Bill, when he plans to announce the membership of the expert group on institutions;
	(2)  with reference to page 22, Annex A, of the Draft Energy Bill, what the appointment process to the expert group on institutions will be;
	(3)  with reference to page 22, Annex A, of the Draft Energy Bill, what the terms of reference of the expert group on institutions will be.

Charles Hendry: The institutions expert group is one of three expert groups the Department has formed in order to facilitate close engagement with a range of stakeholders on the detail of electricity market reform. Officials within the Department worked with industry and other interested parties to identify appropriate members for the groups. The terms of reference for the group, which includes the membership, have been placed in the Libraries of the House.

Gas and Electricity Markets Authority

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change 
	(1)  if he will publish correspondence between his Department and Ofgem on Ofgem's additional responsibilities as proposed in the Draft Energy Bill;
	(2)  if he will publish correspondence between his Department and National Grid on National Grid's role as system operator as proposed in the draft Energy Bill.

Charles Hendry: The Government will continue to work closely with the system operator (National Grid) and Ofgem on the measures proposed in the draft Energy Bill. While we do not plan at this stage to publish correspondence between DECC, Ofgem and National Grid regarding these measures, we will publish further details on the implementation of the reforms towards the end of the year.

Green Deal Scheme

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether consumers will be able to sign contracts for a Green Deal package before parts of the Green Deal framework regulations come into force on 28 January 2013.

Gregory Barker: From August this year accredited certification bodies can submit applications to register with the Green Deal Registration and Oversight Body, and will then be able to register assessors and installers as ‘Green Deal Approved’. Similarly, potential Green Deal providers will also be able to apply for approval. From October, Green Deal assessors will be able to complete assessments and Providers will be able to issue quotes so customers will be ready to take the final step of signing a Green Deal plan at the end of January when the relevant parts of the framework regulations come into effect. In addition, Green Deal authorised installers will be able to complete work if paid for upfront or supported by the Energy company obligation.

Sovereignty: Scotland

Margaret Curran: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change 
	(1)  what correspondence (a) he, (b) Ministers in his Department and (c) officials in his Department have had with the Scottish Government on the potential consequences of Scotland leaving the UK; and if he will place in the Library a copy of any such correspondence;
	(2)  what discussions (a) he, (b) Ministers in his Department and (c) officials in his Department have had with Scottish Government Ministers or officials on the potential consequences of Scotland leaving the UK.

Gregory Barker: Officials and Ministers from the Department of Energy and Climate Change have had no correspondence with Scottish Government officials or Ministers on the consequences of Scotland leaving the UK.
	Department of Energy and Climate Change Ministers have regular contact with Scottish Government Ministers across a range of issues. However, the consequences of Scotland leaving the UK has not been discussed.
	The Government is not making plans for independence as we are confident that people in Scotland will continue to support the United Kingdom in any referendum.
	The UK Government's position is clear: Scotland is stronger as part of the UK and the UK is stronger with Scotland in it.
	The Government will be arguing the case for Scotland to remain within the UK and the Department of Energy and Climate Change will contribute to the debate.

Wind Power

Chris Heaton-Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the potential economic benefit of onshore wind.

Charles Hendry: As a mature, affordable, low carbon technology, using a limitless and indigenous fuel, onshore wind has an important role to play in providing the diverse and secure mix of energy we need to support our economy, and to help protect consumers from the price volatility arising from an overdependence on fossil fuels
	Onshore wind brings substantial new economic benefits and job opportunities to the country as a whole and at a local level. A recent report for DECC and RenewableUK produced by BiGGAR economics(1) shows that in 2011 onshore wind supported around 8,600 jobs and was worth £548 million to the UK economy. Of this, around 1,100 jobs and £84 million investment occur at the local authority level. If onshore wind is deployed at the central scale set out in Government's Renewable Energy Roadmap (i.e. 13 GW ), the economy could benefit to the tune of £0.78 billion by 2020 , supporting around 11,600 direct and supply chain jobs (rising to around 15,500 total jobs if wider quantifiable impacts are taken into account).
	In addition, information collated by DECC from published industry announcements suggests that for the period 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012 there was over £1.6 billion investment in onshore wind, supporting around 1800 jobs.
	(1) ‘Onshore wind—direct and wider economic impacts’ (May 2012) by BiGGAR Economics—see:
	http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/meeting_energy/wind/onshore/benefits_wind/benefts_wind.aspx
	The findings of the report are based on 18 case studies of experience on the ground, and set out the gross impacts of commercial onshore wind development.

Wind Power

Chris Heaton-Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the level of non-compliance with ETSU97 in respect of wind-induced noise and the use of microphone secondary windscreens for wind farm noise assessments.

Charles Hendry: No such assessment has been made by DECC. It is for planning authorities to assess compliance with ETSU-R-97 as appropriate.
	The use of double/secondary microphone windscreens for wind farm noise measurements is considered current good practice by acousticians. Further technical advice on noise measurement equipment including windscreens will be included in the forthcoming guidance on the implementation of ETSU-R-97, which DECC has asked the Institute of Acoustics to develop. The draft guidance is expected to be issued for consultation in the summer.

Wind Power: Noise

Chris Heaton-Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the use of the article method for corrections to wind farm noise evaluations.

Charles Hendry: I have taken the reference to 'article method' to mean the methodologies on predicting and modelling noise propagation from wind turbines agreed by a number of consultants acting for wind farm developers, local authorities and third party groups and published in an article in the Institute of Acoustics Bulletin in 2009(1).
	DECC is aware of article and commissioned a review of it as part of the work carried out by Hayes McKenzie in its report on ‘Analysis of How Noise Impacts are Considered in the Determination of Wind Farm Planning Applications’(2). This found that the approaches set out in the IOA article while useful, had no official status and should be subject to further review.
	(1)  Note:
	http://www.ioa.org.uk/uploads/publication-documents/Acoustics%20Bulletin%20Mar-Apr%20009.pdf
	(2)  Note:
	http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/11/meeting-energy-demand/wind/2033-how-noise-impacts-are-considered.pdf
	DECC has asked the IOA to develop good practice guidance on wind turbine noise assessments which will address as appropriate the various Hayes McKenzie recommendations. A draft is expected to be issued for consultation in the summer.

Sri Lanka

Steven Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent reports he has received of militarisation in Sri Lanka's northern province.

Alistair Burt: We remain concerned about the role of the military in the north and east of Sri Lanka. We support the recommendation of Sri Lanka's Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) that the Northern Province should return to civilian administration and the presence of the military should progressively recede.

Sri Lanka

Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on what date Major General Prasanna Silva took up his position at the Sri Lankan high commission.

Alistair Burt: According to our records, Major General Prasanna De Silva was appointed to the Sri Lankan high commission on 23 September 2010.

Sri Lanka

Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had with the Sri Lankan high commissioner on the activities of Major General Prasanna Silva during the final stages of Sri Lanka's civil war.

Alistair Burt: Ministers have had no recent discussions with the Sri Lankan high commissioner about the activities of Major General Prasanna De Silva during the final stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka. Following allegations of war crimes earlier this year, there was a discussion between officials and the Sri Lankan high commissioner. Major General De Silva left the country at the end of his posting in May.
	The British Government has consistently called for an independent, thorough and credible investigation into allegations of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by both sides in the military conflict.

Syria

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent steps he has taken to secure international agreement on a draft UN Security Council Resolution on Syria.

Alistair Burt: We continue to support the Joint UN-Arab League Special Envoy on Syria, Kofi Annan's six-point plan as the best hope to achieve an end to violence and genuine political transition.
	As the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) said in his statement to the House on 11 June 2012, the Annan Plan is not an open-ended commitment. It cannot be used indefinitely by the regime to play for time. If the Annan Plan is not implemented, we will argue for a new and robust UN Security Council Resolution aimed at compelling the regime to meet its commitments under the Plan. We are in close contact with key international partners on what more we can do to support the Annan Plan, including in the UN.

Syria

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions his Department has had with its international counterparts on the likely steps to be taken in the event that Kofi Annan's peace plan for Syria is not implemented.

Alistair Burt: We are putting our energies into supporting the Joint UN-Arab League Special Envoy, Kofi Annan's, six-point plan for Syria as the best hope to achieve an end to violence and genuine political transition.
	As the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) said in his statement to the House on 11 June 2012, the Annan Plan is not an open-ended commitment. If the Annan Plan is not implemented, we will argue for a new and robust UN Security Council Resolution aimed at compelling the regime to meet its commitments under the Plan.
	The Foreign Secretary during discussions with the Russian Foreign Minister on 28 May 2012 made the case for Russia to use its crucial leverage with the Assad regime to ensure the full implementation of the Annan Plan. When the Foreign Secretary met Foreign Minister Lavrov on 14 June 2012 in Kabul, he welcomed in principle the Russian suggestion of an international conference on Syria which should set out the principles of a political process in Syria, including a plan for political transition in Syria and full implementation of the Annan Plan.

Shanghai Co-operation Organisation

Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on recent developments within the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation.

Jeremy Browne: The EU is working with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation through its Central Asia Strategy. The June SCO summit demonstrated the expansion in both the range of issues the body aims to address and the interest in it from non-member countries.

Africa

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what advisory groups he has on Africa; who the members of each such group are; and what their remuneration is.

Henry Bellingham: Following the visit by the Prime Minister to South Africa and Nigeria in July last year, a sub-Saharan Africa business taskforce was established under the chairmanship of my noble Friend, Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint. It consists of around 30 key companies, both large and small and medium enterprises, with business interests in Africa. The taskforce meets twice a year; the members are unpaid. Ministers and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) officials, including UK Trade and Investment, regularly consult relevant business stakeholders including country specific business councils. In addition, FCO officials and Ministers periodically consult members of the African Diaspora community on a range of issues.

Brunei

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he last visited Brunei; what recent steps he has taken to strengthen the UK's economic, commercial, cultural and educational links with Brunei; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Browne: The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, the right hon. Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), visited Brunei on 26-27 April 2012. The Secretary of State discussed a range of issues, including the UK's close partnership with Brunei across the energy, defence and finance sectors. The Secretary of State found the relationship to be thriving; delivering substantial benefits for both countries, notably in the fields of Energy, Defence, Education and Finance, subsequently underlined by a visit to London by His Majesty the Sultan. In a separate event with Brunei's Minister of Education, the Secretary of State launched the initiative of the British Universities' Brunei Association to strengthen still further the educational and research links between Britain and Brunei. The text of the Secretary of State's statement following the visit is at:
	www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=758821382

Brunei

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment he has made of the state of the UK's relations with Brunei; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Browne: The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, the right hon. Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), had an opportunity to assess the state of the UK's relations with Brunei during his visit to that country on 26-27 April 2012. He had discussions with Brunei's Foreign Minister, His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed, with Brunei's Minister of Education, Pehin Abu Bakar, with online social network users and with the team at our high commission. The Secretary of State found the relationship to be thriving; delivering substantial benefits for both countries, notably in the fields of Energy, Defence, Education and Finance, subsequently underlined by a visit to London by His Majesty the Sultan. The Secretary of State observed that the many ties between Britain and Brunei today—including Brunei's uniquely successful experience of the English language as a medium of learning—make the UK a natural partner for the Sultanate as it moves to diversify within the energy sector and build a knowledge-based economy. The text of the Secretary of State's statement following the visit is at:
	www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=758821382

Diplomatic Service: Human Trafficking

Peter Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the role played by the UK's overseas missions in tackling the problem of human trafficking.

Jeremy Browne: Our embassies and high commissions provide a platform for departments including the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the Department for International Development (DFID) and the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to implement the Government's Human Trafficking Strategy overseas. Work is primarily focused on the nine top source countries for potentially trafficked victims in the UK and some work is carried out in transit countries.
	Our embassies and high commissions make a valuable contribution to tackling human trafficking including through:
	working with foreign governments and other organisations to build their capacity to disrupt human trafficking, for example by working with investigators and prosecutors to increase prosecutions for human trafficking offences;
	addressing the root causes of human trafficking through DFID's work to alleviate poverty overseas, for example the four-year DFID-led South Asia Project covering India, Nepal and Bangladesh which aims to reduce the number of women and girls from being trafficked and to protect the rights of women and girls who migrate for work from Asia;
	encouraging governments in source and transit countries to take the lead to protect potential victims and reintegrate victims; and
	contributing to the UK's and international efforts to combat trafficking by ensuring that UK interests are effectively represented bilaterally and in multilateral fora, including the EU and the UN.

Kenya

Adam Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps his Department is taking to support the investigation into the death of Alexander Monson in Kenya; and what steps it is taking to assist his family.

Henry Bellingham: An investigation into Alexander's tragic death is being conducted by the Kenyan authorities. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has made a forma] request for the findings to be shared with the family and us as soon as they are available. I have personally raised the matter with Foreign Minister Ongeri on 31 May. We will continue lo follow the progress of the investigation and stay in close contact with the family to ensure they are informed of any developments.

Montenegro

Chris Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his most recent assessment is of Montenegro's readiness to join the EU.

David Lidington: The UK supports eventual EU membership for Montenegro, as for all countries of the Western Balkans. We look forward to the upcoming decision on whether to open EU accession negotiations with Montenegro this year based on the European Commission's recommendation that Montenegro has made good progress across the range of pre-accession criteria. However, the opening of accession negotiations is only the beginning. There is still much progress needed to bring Montenegro in line with the EU standards required for membership, and the UK remains clear that Montenegro will need to meet the required conditionality before being accepted into the EU. The EU accession process is a rigorous conditions-based process that is designed to ensure this. Particular areas of concern regarding rule of law and organised crime and corruption will be addressed early under the new approach of opening negotiation on Chapters 23 (Judiciary and fundamental rights) and 24 (Justice, freedom and security) as early as possible in the process; which we fully support.

Official Visits: Israel

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions and meetings he and his Ministers have had with the Israeli Prime Minister on threats from Iran; and what exchange of intelligence there has been between the UK and Israel on the possible threats from Iran.

Alistair Burt: We keep in close and regular touch with Israeli counterparts on the threat posed by Iran. Most recently the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) discussed Iran with the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on 22 May 2012, where he reiterated our commitment to a peaceful diplomatic solution to the nuclear issue. The Foreign Secretary also discussed Iran with the Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz on 11 May and with the Israeli National Security Adviser Yaaokov Amidror on 1 May.

Pay

Stephen Gilbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps his Department has taken to introduce regional pay since 20 March 2012; and if he will make a statement.

Henry Bellingham: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) exits the pay freeze in 2013 and will at that point look to move to more local, market facing pay. We are awaiting further data and guidance from Efficiency and Reform Group in Cabinet Office that will allow my officials to look at how the FCO's pay structures compare with local market data. Once this is published we will work with Cabinet Office and Her Majesty's Treasury colleagues to produce a three year pay strategy.

Spain

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assistance his Department gave to British nationals affected by recent delays at the Spanish border in Gibraltar.

David Lidington: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) travel advice includes advice for travellers crossing the Spain Gibraltar border.
	Should we receive any calls we would provide assistance appropriate to the particular circumstances in line with consular policy.
	The FCO has not received any calls from British Nationals regarding recent delays at the border.

Africa

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps he has taken to ensure that UK and European development policy in Africa is aligned.

Alan Duncan: The UK is committed to working to align EU-UK development policy including in Africa, and to ensure EU aid is increasingly focused on demonstrating clear results and value for money.
	The UK Multilateral Aid Review (MAR) provided a comprehensive analysis of multilateral performance. The European development fund (EDF) was among the top performers for delivering effective, transparent aid and inclusive partnerships. It is less effective in demonstrating results and communicating impact. These issues continue to be addressed by discussions in Brussels and regular MAR reporting from DFID country offices.
	The UK has provided significant inputs into the EU's new Development Policy: 'An Agenda for Change'. Consequently this reflects a large number of UK priorities, including greater focus on results and impact, and more emphasis on monitoring and evaluation.
	I am strongly supportive of the EU's focus of regional economic integration in Africa as a driver of growth. My Department is seeking alignment on policies on regional integration and infrastructure, and has made the largest financial contribution to the EU Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund of all member states.
	Given the significance of Budget Support in Africa, I have been particularly keen to align our position with the EU. The Commission's policy paper on Budget Support entitled 'The Future Approach to EU Budget Support to Third Countries' strongly reflects our own position and demonstrates the results and value for money expected of future EU budget support programmes.
	DFID has extensively collaborated on the EU Horn of Africa strategy. I have led discussions specifically on Somalia with the Commission and other member states to align our positions. The Commission attended the recent UK Conference on Somalia where we agreed goals and objectives.

Sahel

Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the situation in the Sahel region of West Africa; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Mitchell: According to latest reports by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 18 million men, women and children across the Sahel region of West Africa are at risk of food shortages in the coming months. This includes over 1.5 million children under the age of five, who are at risk of becoming severely malnourished.
	I have recently announced a further package of UK support to help mitigate the crisis. Through this assistance, British aid will support over 1.4 million people at risk of hunger across Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania and Burkina Faso in 2012.
	UK officials continue to monitor the situation closely and liaise with their opposite numbers in other Governments to ensure that other countries take their fair share of the response.

Absent Voting: Fraud

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps he is taking to reduce the incidence of (a) postal vote fraud, (b) personation and (c) electoral malpractice; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Harper: The Government are committed to tackling electoral fraud and has announced that it will legislate to bring Individual Electoral Registration (IER) into force in 2014, ahead of the next general election. Under IER individuals applying to register to vote will have to provide personal information such as their date of birth and national insurance number. This information will be checked against the Department for Work and Pensions customer information system database before a person is added to the register. At the end of the 2015 canvass every entry on the register, except for service voters, will have been individually verified. This will make the electoral register more accurate and more secure, and this should give greater protection to the integrity of the voting process at elections. The Government will also bring forward legislation to make it mandatory for returning officers to check 100% of postal vote identifiers (PVIs) on returned postal vote statements.
	Whilst there is no evidence that electoral malpractice is widespread on a national level, any instance of electoral fraud is serious and we will continue to work with the Electoral Commission, police, political parties and returning officers to raise awareness and strengthen systems, to ensure that fraud is detected and prosecuted and to draw attention to existing best practice.

Civil Disorder

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many people have appeared before Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court charged with an offence related to the public disorder of August 2011;
	(2)  what charges related to the public disorder of August 2011 were brought in cases heard at Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court;
	(3)  what the age was of the (a) youngest and (b) oldest person who appeared before Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court charged with an offence related to the public disorder of August 2011.

Crispin Blunt: The number of defendants appearing before Camberwell Green magistrates court for offences relating to the public disorder between 6 to 9 August 2011, by offence type, can be viewed in the table. Data given are as of midday on l February 2012.
	The youngest person proceeded against at Camberwell Green magistrates court as of 1 February 2012, for offences relating to the public disorder of August 2011 was aged 12 years. The oldest was aged 69 years.
	
		
			 Defendants appearing at Camberwell Green magistrates court for offences relating to the public disorder between 6 and 9 August 2011—data as of February 2012 (1) ,  (2) 
			 Offence type Defendants 
			 Burglary 333 
			 Criminal damage 2 
			 Other 39 
			 Robbery 7 
			 Theft 128 
			 Violent disorder 56 
			 Total 565 
			 (1) Violent disorder (includes following offences: violent disorder, riot, affray, summary causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress, summary harassment, alarm or distress, assault with intent to resist apprehension or assault a person assisting a constable, common assault offences, assaulting a constable and offences under Public Order Act and Justice of the Peace Act). (2) Other offence type (includes following offences: Having an article with a blade or point in public place, possession of offensive weapons without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, having possession of a controlled drug (Cannabis). Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice.

Community Orders

Heidi Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he plans to take to identify offenders with learning difficulties who will be exempt from intensive community orders.

Crispin Blunt: The Government's consultation paper “Punishment and Reform: Effective Community Sentences” seeks views on the offenders for whom intensive community punishment might be suitable. The equality impact assessment for the consultation identified that offenders with a disability, including learning difficulties, may have specific needs in terms of community orders, and that these needs differ to those without these protected characteristics. We will consider this issue carefully when developing final proposals for intensive community punishment, and will set out our intentions in due course after the consultation closes.

Cycling

Julian Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the letter from British Cycling of 1 June 2012, what discussions his Department has had with (a) the Department for Transport and (b) the Home Office on holding a review of the criminal justice system to better protect road users.

Crispin Blunt: To date no discussions have been held with the Department of Transport on holding a review of the criminal justice system to better protect road users with reference to the letter from British Cycling of 1 June 2012.

Efficiency and Reform Group

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff were assigned to (a) the Reward, Efficiency and Reform Group and (b) regional pay issues in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and how many he expects to be assigned for such purposes in each of the next three years.

Kenneth Clarke: The information is as follows:
	(a) There is not a Reward, Efficiency and Reform Group in the Ministry of Justice or its agencies. Cabinet Office formed an Efficiency and Reform Group in May 2010. In October 2011 one Ministry of Justice employee was loaned to the Cabinet Office to work within this group specifically on reward issues including regional pay. It is currently expected that the loan period for this employee will end in April 2013.
	(b) Within the Ministry of Justice and its agencies there are two reward policy teams, one in Ministry of Justice and one in the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), which have responsibility for a wide range of reward and related policy issues including regional pay matters. There is however no member of staff assigned specifically to regional pay issues. The staff numbers requested for the two reward policy teams are as follows:
	Ministry of Justice (excluding NOMS)
	(i) 2010-11: 11
	(ii) 2011-12: 15 (team increased to incorporate a programme team working on future reward strategy) but has since reduced to 12. The team is expected to further reduce to five in 2012-13 with no further changes expected within the next three years
	National Offender Management Service (NOMS)
	(i) 2010-11: 11
	(ii) 2011-12: Nine further reduced to seven in April 2012. There are no plans to further vary the size of the team.

Prisoners' Release

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what is the shortest amount of time served in prison before release by an offender who is sentenced to (a) two weeks, (b) four weeks, (c) three months, (d) six months, (e) 12 months, (f) two years and (g) four years imprisonment in the latest period for which figures are available.

Crispin Blunt: Prisoners serving a standard determinate custodial sentence must be released automatically at the halfway point of their sentence. Prisoners serving between three months and just less than four years, who meet the eligibility criteria and are risk assessed as suitable, may be released on Home Detention Curfew (HDC) between 14 and 135 days before the halfway point of their sentence, depending on their sentence length. Prisoners must serve a minimum of one quarter of their sentence (subject to a minimum of 30 days in custody) before they can be released on HDC.
	Any relevant time spent in custody on remand may, and generally will, count as time served towards the sentence. The sentencing court may also direct that relevant time spent remanded on bail subject to electronic monitoring ("tagged bail") counts towards the sentence, provided that the offender was curfewed for at least nine hours per day and complied with the curfew on each day to count. Each day on tagged bail counts as half a day.
	The following table indicates the shortest period that could be served in prison by someone sentenced to the various terms of imprisonment if they are eligible, suitable and were released at the earliest possible date under the Home Detention Curfew (HDC) scheme. In an individual case, this period would be reduced by any relevant tagged bail time directed to count by the court.
	
		
			 Sentence length Minimum period in prison Maximum period on HDC 
			 2 weeks 1 week 0 
			 4 weeks 2 weeks 0 
			 3 months 30 days 2 weeks 
			 6 months 6 weeks 6 weeks 
			 12 months 3 months 3 months 
			 2 years 7.5 months 4.5 months 
			 4 years 2 years 0

Social Security Benefits: Appeals

Bob Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps his Department is taking to increase capacity within the Tribunals Service to deal with appeal cases received by the First-tier Tribunal-Social Security and Child Support.

Jonathan Djanogly: Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has continued to respond strongly to the significant increase in appeal cases received by the First-tier Tribunal-Social Security and Child Support (SSCS). It is working hard to increase the capacity of the SSCS tribunal and reduce waiting times. It has implemented a range of measures which include recruiting more judges and medical panel members; increasing administrative resources and streamlining processes; securing additional hearing venues across the country; increasing the number of cases listed in each tribunal session; running double shifts in its largest processing centre; running Saturday sittings in some of the busiest venues; reviewing all information for appellants to ensure that it is as clear and comprehensive as possible, and setting up a customer contact centre to deal with telephone enquiries.
	All of this is having a positive effect. The total number of disposals has increased significantly from 279,000 in 2009-10 to 380,000 in 2010-11 and the tribunal expects to have disposed of around 435,000 appeals in 2011-12, with the capacity for half a million disposals in 2012-13. Disposals outstripped receipts for the 12 months between January 2011 and December 2011, and the number of cases waiting to be heard reduced by over 44,000 between April and December 2011. The average waiting time has stabilised nationally, and is beginning to fall across many venues.
	Work is ongoing to increase the tribunal's capacity further, including the recruitment of additional judges and medical members; review and continuous improvement of administrative processes both internally and between HMCTS and the Department for Work and Pensions; including implementation of Section 102 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 which creates the opportunity for additional improvements to business processes.

Trade Union Officials

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many days were used by trade union representatives in his Department for facility time in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and what estimate he has made of the total cost to the public purse of the associated salary costs.

Kenneth Clarke: Facility time data for local representatives is not recorded centrally, and it would therefore incur disproportionate cost to provide information for the number of days used. However, trade unions in the department were allocated facility time equivalent to a maximum 166.5 FTE in 2010-11 and 169 FTE in 2011-12.

Correspondence

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many letters to Ministers in his Department were (a) not answered, (b) not answered within six months and (c) not answered within three months in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; how many such letters were from hon. Members; and if he will make a statement.

Francis Maude: The information is not available in the form requested.
	The Cabinet Office, on an annual basis, publishes a report to Parliament on the performance of all departments in replying to Members' correspondence. Reports are available in the Library of the House.

Electoral Register: Fraud

Chris Ruane: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many successful prosecutions for electoral registration fraud there were in each region in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

Mark Harper: Electoral Commission figures show that the number of convictions for electoral registration fraud across the United Kingdom over the last four years was as follows:
	
		
			  Convictions 
			 2008 1 
			 2009 1 
			 2010 — 
			 2011 — 
		
	
	The Government do not collect or hold these data, but these statistics can be found in the Electoral Commission's ‘Analysis of cases of alleged electoral malpractice’ accessible through the following internet links:
	http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/109012/Integrity-report-FINAL-no-embargo.pdf
	http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/83702/063-Allegations-Report-final.pdf
	http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/74588/Allegations-of-Electoral-Malpractice-Web-Final.pdf
	http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/147161/Analysis-of-alleged-cases-of-electoral-malpractice-in-2011.pdf
	The data has only been collected in this format since 2008.

Population

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what estimate he has made of the population of the UK in 2050.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated June 2012
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question to the Minister for the Cabinet Office, asking what he estimates the population of the United Kingdom will be in 2050.
	The most recent national population projections, based on the resident population at the middle of 2010, were published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 26 October 2011. The projected total population for the UK in 2050 is 78.4 million people.
	Assumptions of future mortality, fertility and migration underlying national population projections are demographic trend based. The projections become increasingly uncertain the further they are carried forward. To help understand the uncertainty, a number variant projections based on alternative assumptions are also produced. National population projections are not forecasts and do not attempt to predict the impact that factors such as future government policies or changing economic circumstances might have on the population.

Third Sector: Finance

Ann McKechin: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what discussions and correspondence he has had with the Scottish Government on the Big Society Capital and the formation of the Investment and Contract Readiness Fund.

Nick Hurd: As part, of the consultation process on the establishment of Big Society Capital I visited each of the devolved Administrations and met with sector representatives to discuss a range of measures to grow the social investment market in the UK, including the. Investment and Contract Readiness Fund.
	The Investment and Contract Readiness Fund itself is an England only fund. As such, key stakeholders representing the sector in England were consulted on how it could best provide support to social ventures based in England. The provision of support to improve the investment and contract readiness of the sector in Scotland is a devolved matter.

Employment Schemes: Disability

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in receipt of disability benefits were referred to (a) the Work Programme and (b) Work Choice since their inception; and how many people in receipt of disability benefits were referred to previous Government welfare to work schemes in each of the three years prior to the introduction of the Work Programme.

Chris Grayling: Official statistics on Work Programme referrals and attachments up to the end of January 2012 were published on 9 May 2012. The information requested on Work Programme and previous welfare to work schemes referrals for people in receipt of disability benefits can be found via the Tabulation Tool which is published on the Department's website:
	http://83.244.183.180/WorkProg/tabtool.html
	The information on Work Choice referrals will be published on the Department's website on 20 June 2012.

Employment Schemes: Dyslexia

Gareth Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department is taking to support dyslexic jobseekers.

Maria Miller: Jobcentre Plus is committed to helping people to find a suitable job through its network of advisers.
	Where customers with dyslexia need extra support to find or retain work the local Jobcentre Plus office can refer them to a disability employment adviser, who can provide support and advice in finding or staying in employment, including sourcing suitable job opportunities, advocating on their behalf with employers, and using the professional expertise of occupational psychologists specialising in working with disabled people. They will also be able to advise them about specialised support available for disabled people;
	In addition they can refer individuals to appropriate employment provision including:
	Work programme
	The Government recognises that many customers have complex disability-related barriers to work and may require specialist support. We know a significant proportion of people with dyslexia have marginal or no specialist support needs. Therefore, in practice the majority of people with dyslexia will be served through our mainstream employment provision.
	The Work programme was launched on 10 June 2011, and is the biggest single Welfare to Work programme. It provides more personalised back-to-work support for unemployed people, including those with disabilities.
	Work Choice
	Provides tailored support to help disabled people who face the most complex barriers to employment, find and stay in work and ultimately help them progress into unsupported employment, where it is appropriate for the individual. Work Choice is voluntary and available regardless of any benefits being claimed. Work Choice can provide an indefinite period of support once the customer is in work, unlike mainstream employment provision. This is in recognition of the fact that some Work Choice participants may need ongoing support to overcome barriers in work that cannot be met through normal workplace adjustments.
	Access to Work
	Provides additional support for individuals whose health or disability affects the way they do their job. It provides individuals and their employers with advice and support with extra costs which may arise because of an individual's needs. The type of support Access to Work provides can include; support workers, awareness training for colleagues and counselling.

Foreign Workers

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to the answer of 24 April 2012, Official Report, column 789W and pursuant to the answer of 15 May 2012, Official Report, column 102W, on foreign workers, for how many contracts the five suppliers named in his answer have submitted offshoring proposals; what the (a) nature and (b) value was of each of those contracts; and what the value was of the offshored portion in each case.

Chris Grayling: Instances of off shoring proposals—nearly all of the instances submitted by the five suppliers are in the form of individual work orders from a number of IT related contract vehicles.
	The contract values for the five suppliers are (2011 to 2013 inclusive) HP Enterprise Services £113.4 million; Accenture £105.3 million; IBM £46.6 million. Also Enterprise Car Hire £3.0 million: Yammer £16,360.
	The Department does not centrally record the value of each of the individual work orders or indeed the portion that would be offshored. This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Housing Benefit

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of social rented sector tenants who will move as a result of the underoccupancy measures in the Welfare Reform Act 2012.

Steve Webb: One of the aims of the social sector size criteria is to help increase mobility within the social rented sector. Figures from the English Housing Survey for 2010-11 suggest that less than 4% of tenants living in the social rented sector moved within the sector during the year.
	Housing benefit claimants affected by the size criteria are likely to have a number of choices. This could include moving into work, increasing working hours or taking in a lodger. It could also involve claimants moving to alternative accommodation in the social rented sector, or possibly downsizing into smaller accommodation in the private rented sector. We are unable to accurately estimate the numbers moving as different claimants are likely to have different options available to them, and will respond in a variety of ways to the introduction of the size criteria.
	Some details of the sensitivity analysis the Department has carried out on the possible behavioural responses to the under occupancy measures will be included in the updated impact assessment of the measures to be published alongside the regulations, which we aim to lay later this month.
	The behavioural responses of claimants and landlords affected by the size criteria will be included in the planned independent monitoring and evaluation to assess the impact of the introduction of size criteria in the social rented sector.

Poverty: Children

Bob Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the number of children living in poverty in (a) Coventry, (b) Coventry North East constituency, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England in each of the last five years; and what recent steps his Department has taken to tackle child poverty.

Maria Miller: The Child Poverty Act 2010 sets four income-based UK-wide targets to be met by 2020. The targets are based on the proportion of children living in households with relative low income, combined low income and material deprivation, absolute low income and persistent poverty (all before housing costs have been taken into account). Relative low income (below 60% of contemporary median) is used for international comparisons and is used in this answer.
	Estimates of the number and proportion of children living in households with relative low income, combined low income and material deprivation, absolute low income are published in the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series. HBAI uses household income adjusted (or 'equivalised') for household size and composition, to provide a proxy for standard of living.
	The sample size of this survey is not sufficient to provide estimates at local authority or constituency level. Therefore we are unable to provide data for Coventry or for the Coventry North East constituency. However, figures at a regional level for the West Midlands and England are available for the past five years.
	Three survey years have been combined because single year estimates are not considered to be sufficiently reliable. Statistics covering 2008-09 to 2010-11 are the most recent available.
	The following table shows the proportion and number of children living in relative low income, Before Housing Costs (BHC), for 2006-07 to 2008-09 to 2008-09 to 2010-11 in the West Midlands and England.
	
		
			 Number of children in relative low income Before Housing Costs, in the West Midlands and England from 2006-07—2008-09 to 2008-09—2010-11 
			 Million 
			  West Midlands England 
			 2006-07 to 2008-09 0.3 2.4 
			 2007-08 to 2009-10 0.3 2.3 
		
	
	
		
			 2008-09 to 2010-11 0.3 2.1 
			 Notes: 1. These statistics are based on Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data sourced from the 2010-11 Family Resources Survey (FRS). This uses disposable household income, adjusted using modified OECD equivalisation factors for household size and composition, as an income measure as a proxy for standard of living and is available at: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=hbai_arc 2. These figures have been presented on a Before Housing Costs basis. That means housing costs (such as rent, water rates, mortgage interest payments, buildings insurance payments and ground rent and service charges) are not deducted from income. 3. All estimates are based on survey data and are therefore subject to a degree of uncertainty. Small differences should be treated with caution as these will be affected by sampling error and variability in non-response. 4. The reference period for HBAI figures is the financial year. Three survey years have been combined because single year estimates are not considered to be sufficiently reliable. 5. Numbers of children have been rounded to the nearest 100,000. 6. Relative poverty captures children who live in a household with an equivalised income below 60% of median income, Before Housing Costs. 7. The Child Poverty Act 2010 sets four income-based UK-wide targets to be met by 2020. The targets are based on the proportion of children living in households with relative low income, combined low income and material deprivation, absolute low income and persistent poverty, Before Housing Costs. 
		
	
	The Government published its first strategy to tackle child poverty in April 2011. The strategy draws together the Government's radical programme of welfare and education reform. It underpins the Government's ambition for every child to realise their potential and reflects its belief that reducing poverty is about more than lifting families' incomes above an arbitrary line. It demonstrates that the Government is making a sustained, long-term attempt to lift people out of not only income poverty, but poverty of aspiration and poverty of outcomes. The child poverty strategy sets out how the Government will tackle the root causes of poverty such as worklessness, educational failure, debt, poor health and family breakdown, thereby raising the life chances of poorer children and breaking the cycle of entrenched intergenerational poverty.
	On 14 June, the Government published its report on whether the last Government's target to halve child poverty by 2010 was met, and announced that it would be consulting on better measurements of child poverty in the autumn.

Social Security Benefits

Matthew Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the maximum possible amount per year in benefits within the scope of the total household benefit cap is that a household can receive under the current system.

Chris Grayling: Currently there is no limit on the amount of benefits households can receive. The Government is introducing a cap on benefits so that households on out of work benefits can no longer receive more in benefits than the average working household receives in pay.
	On its introduction in 2013, the cap will be set at £500 per week for couple and single parent households, which would allow a maximum total of benefits for a year of £26,000. The equivalent of £35,000 a year gross earnings. For single adults without dependant children the cap will be set at £350 per week.
	There will be a number of exclusions from the cap. The cap is intended to increase the incentives to move into work and therefore those on working tax credit will be exempt from the cap. Also, in recognition their additional needs, all households which include somebody who is receiving disability living allowance, personal independence payment, attendance allowance, industrial injuries disablement benefit (and those receiving war disablement pension and the equivalent payments from the Armed Forces Compensation Payments Scheme), or the support component of employment support allowance will be exempt from the cap. War widows and widowers will also be exempt.

Social Security Benefits: Visual Impairment

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what arrangements he has made for sight-impaired clients of his Department to receive basic information including claims forms in a larger font appropriate to their disability.

Maria Miller: The information is as follows:
	1. Provision for sign-impaired claimants
	1.1 Large Print formats
	The Department continues to provide Large Print formats at a standard 16 point. Individual requests for larger fonts are considered on a case by case basis.
	Since June 2011, the Department has received 41 requests for larger than 16 point and these were all fulfilled.
	1.2 Braille
	DWP Provides English and Welsh Braille formats for leaflets and forms on a 'Print on Demand' (POD) basis and within standard agreed timings in both languages, agreed with the claimant in advance.
	1.3 Reasonable Adjustment for Sight-impaired Claimants
	'Reasonable adjustments' are put in place as a replacement where it could better serve claimants' needs (and balances the cost to the Department), for example face-to-face meetings, working through external partners or by telephone.
	Similarly, the online version of Large Print is deliberately designed in A5, black and white format. This can be copied and scaled to A4, increasing the font size to well over 16 point where needed.
	All current online information provision, eg on Directgov is compatible with industry standard screen reader software for sight impaired users.
	DWP continues to consult with stakeholder representative groups and to consider feedback about the effectiveness of departmental products.
	Note:
	Welsh provision across all materials is a statutory requirement and not an alternative format.

AgustaWestland

Richard Drax: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent discussion he has had with representatives of Augusta-Westland on the contract to build Apache helicopters.

Peter Luff: No requirement currently exists to add to the Army Air Corp's fleet of Apache attack helicopters. The Ministry of Defence is engaged in the concept phase of a Capability Sustainment Programme to address our future attack helicopter capability requirement and how it will be sustained to 2040.
	As part of the Concept Phase, informal discussions are taking place with potential contractors to inform the range of options which will be taken forward into the Assessment Phase. The Project Team have had initial meetings with representatives of AgustaWestland, who have been encouraged to continue to work with the MOD to help develop our analysis.

Aircraft Carriers

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will estimate the cost of coating the decks of the Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales aircraft carriers to allow for short take-off and landing of the Joint Strike Fighter B variant.

Peter Luff: A cost estimate for deck coating for the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers was part of the Final Target Cost agreement in 2010. We are, however, withholding this estimate as it is part of an ongoing contract and its release could jeopardise commercial discussions between BAE Systems and the supply chain.

Armed Forces: Suicide

Stephen Gilbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many former members of the (a) Army, (b) Royal Navy and (c) Royal Air Force (i) committed and (ii) attempted suicide within (A) three, (B) five and (C) 10 years of discharge since 1992.

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 18 June 2012
	The Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not hold information on attempted suicides of armed forces personnel once they have left service. However MOD does hold some data on former members of the armed forces who have committed suicide. This is currently published by Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) and details causes of mortality (including suicides and open verdict deaths) of veterans of the 1990-91 operation in the Gulf, together with comparative data for a matched cohort of personnel who did not deploy.
	Between 1 April 1991 and 31 December 2011 there were 265 suicide and open verdict deaths among Gulf War 1 Veterans and the comparison cohort who had left service.
	The following table provides a breakdown by service, overall and for those who died within three, five and 10 years of discharge. Please note there were five records where the exit date was not available and therefore it is not possible to determine how long after discharge the death occurred:
	
		
			 Service All Within  three  years of discharge Within five  years of discharge Within 10 years of discharge Exit date not available 
			 All 265 68 93 183 5 
			 Royal Navy 16 1 5 12 0 
			 Army 208 42 60 135 4 
			 RAF 41 25 28 36 1 
		
	
	The MOD is currently undertaking research into the causes of death (including suicide) among those who served in the Falklands campaign. The study will obtain death notifications to date for the cohort, and will assist us in continuing to develop our support for former personnel and those leaving the services. The MOD is also undertaking a similar study on veterans of Operations Telic and Herrick. This will monitor the causes of death (including suicide) of all serving members of the armed forces from 2003 until the end of Operations in Afghanistan. The intention is to run the study for the lifetime of the cohort; therefore the population will include both serving and discharged personnel. The MOD hopes to publish initial results in 2014.

AWE

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the written statement of 14 May 2012, Official Report, column 20WS, on the Atomic Weapons Establishment, what the revenue and capital expenditure of the Atomic Weapons Establishment was in each year from 2007-08 to 2011-12; and what the revenue and capital expenditure is projected to be in each of the years from 2012-13 to 2017-18.

Peter Luff: The following table shows the breakdown of capital and revenue (resource) costs at the atomic weapons establishment for the period 2007-08 through to 2017-18.
	The question asked for revenue and capital expenditure. However, the Ministry of Defence uses the accounting terms capital departmental expenditure and resource departmental expenditure.
	
		
			 £ million at outturn prices 
			 Financial year Capital costs Resource costs Total costs 
			 2007-08 409 485 894 
			 2008-09 395 405 800 
			 2009-10 420 450 870 
			 2010-11 409 535 944 
			 2011-12(1) 349 592 941 
			 2012-13(1) 466 506 972 
		
	
	
		
			 2013-14(1) 473 512 985 
			 2014-15(1) 534 533 1,067 
			 2015-16(1) 483 535 1,018 
			 2016-17(1) 419 543 962 
			 2017-18(1) 426 562 988 
			 (1 )Figures for years 2011-12 and 2012-13 are provisional, while those for 2013-14 up to 2012 to 2018 are planned. Notes: 1. CDEL—Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit This covers costs required to bring an asset into working condition for its intended use. Costs include direct purchase price, direct support required to bring the asset to working condition, delivery/handling and installation, Capital spares are also included in CDEL. These are what are required to support the asset and are defined as repairable items with more than one year of life which are retained for the purpose of replacing elements of an asset as it undergoes repair, maintenance, servicing. Additionally CDEL covers any upgrade costs that change/improve the capability of the asset or extends its life. 2. RDEL—Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit These are the costs required to support an asset that is in-service—i.e. we are getting beneficial use from it. These costs include associated running costs and maintaining the asset (i.e. contractor support) that does not alter the capability/life of the asset.

Defence Equipment

Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his oral statement of 14 May 2012, Official Report, columns 261-64, when his Department plans to publish a specific equipment programme.

Peter Luff: I refer the hon. Member to the relevant section of the statement made by the Secretary of State for Defence, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), to the House on 14 May 2012, Official Report, column 264.

Defence Equipment: Scotland

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) SA90 self propelled guns, (b) multi rocket armoured vehicles, (c) Bates communication systems, (d) SA and IS mortars, (e) man portable surveillance and target acquisition radar systems and (f) Rapier field standard missiles of each equipment type are permanently based at each location in Scotland.

Peter Luff: The UK's Defence footprint is organised, resourced and managed on a UK-wide basis to meet operational needs.
	The only equipments listed in the question that are permanently based in Scotland are the mortars, of which there are a total of 39.
	The locations of these mortars are provided in the following table:
	
		
			  Number 
			 Arbroath 9 
			 Inverness 6 
			 Edinburgh 21 
			 Glasgow 3

Defence Equipment: Scotland

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) Bowman communication systems, (b) Clansman communication systems, (c) aviation computer systems and (d) A&I weapons systems of each equipment type are permanently based at each location in Scotland.

Peter Luff: The UK's Defence footprint is organised, resourced and managed on a UK-wide basis to meet operational needs.
	There are no Clansman communication systems or aviation computer systems permanently based in Scotland. Information relating to the precise locations of the Bowman Communication Systems is being withheld for the purpose of safeguarding national security, however, it is estimated that there are around 2,100 across Scotland.

Defence Equipment: Scotland

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  how many (a) Challenger 2 combat tanks, (b) combat engineer tractors, (c) combat personnel vehicles and (d) multi-rocket armoured vehicles are permanently based in Scotland in respect of each (i) equipment type and (ii) location;
	(2)  how many Jetstream (a) T2 aircraft and (b) T3 aircraft are permanently based in Scotland in respect of each (i) equipment type and (ii) location.

Peter Luff: The UK's Defence footprint is organised, resourced and managed on a UK-wide basis to meet operational needs.
	No equipment of the types listed are permanently based in Scotland at this time.

Defence: Procurement

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he proposes that his Department's Committed Core Equipment Programme will include the Trident successor programme.

Peter Luff: holding answer 24 May 2012)
	As previously announced, the successor nuclear deterrent is included within the core programme.

Defence: Procurement

Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his oral statement of 14 May 2012, Official Report, columns 261-64, what the status is of the Seaseeker Programme.

Peter Luff: Project Seaseeker is part of the core equipment programme. The intention is to take the investment decision in 2013 in order to bring the capability into service around 2017.

Diamond Jubilee 2012

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of activities undertaken in connection with the Diamond Jubilee celebration.

Andrew Robathan: Members of the armed forces have been fully involved in marking the 60(th) anniversary of Her Majesty the Queen's accession to the throne. The costs associated with this activity are currently being collated. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as these are available.

Electronic Warfare

Andrea Leadsom: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the potential threat to national security of electromagnetic pulses.

Nick Harvey: The threat from electromagnetic pulse (EMP) has been assessed by Government, with full engagement from the MOD. EMP from nuclear devices falls within the boarder category of a risk of nuclear attack. Such an attack constitutes a tier 2 risk to national security. The Government are keeping the risk of acquisition or use of non-nuclear EMP by State or non-state actors under review.
	As stated previously in evidence provided by Defence officials to the House of Commons Defence Committee (HCDC) Inquiry into electromagnetic pulses (EMP), state development of nuclear EMP devices tends to require advanced engineering. It would require a combination of warhead and missile capabilities that is restricted at present to a few states, none of whom, we judge, currently have the intent to conduct a HEMP (High-Altitude EMP) attack, and all of whom would understand the severe consequences of such aggression. While the Government monitors and assesses whether existing open source information could be used to create a viable non-nuclear EMP device, this information is being withheld for the purposes of safeguarding national security.

Electronic Warfare

Andrea Leadsom: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he is taking to defend the UK from electromagnetic pulses.

Nick Harvey: A nuclear detonation in the UK or its overseas territories is assessed as a tier 2 risk in the 2010 national security strategy. Tier 2 risks are those judged to be low likelihood but high impact. One of the effects of such an event would be an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Mitigating action to counter the threat from this type of EMP is therefore focused principally on preventing the threat of nuclear attack through a number of coordinated cross-Government activities.
	These activities include the maintenance of a credible nuclear deterrent by the Ministry of Defence, and our broader support to Foreign and Commonwealth Office-led cross-Government work on counter proliferation. We also take steps to protect key defence systems and capabilities against the threat from EMP.
	As the Secretary of State for Defence, the right hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), indicated in his speech to the Electric Infrastructure Security summit (EISS) on 14 May 2012, the consequences for the perpetrator of a nuclear weapon being used as a high altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) device would be severe and any potential aggressor should be aware that we will respond proportionately against any state that launches or enables such an attack.

Military Aircraft: Air Traffic Control

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent discussions he has had with his counterparts in (a) Australia, (b) New Zealand, (c) the US and (d) Canada on creating an interoperable recognised air picture capability.

Nick Harvey: The UK is a member of the Australia, US, Canada, New Zealand and UK Information Warfare Organisation, for which the UK is currently the chair. One of the objectives of the organisation is to improve picture exchange in all environments including air. Discussions continually take place at all levels on both the operational and technical specifics of an interoperable recognised air picture capability.

Olympic Games 2012: Security

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what resources his Department is making available for security for the London 2012 Olympics.

Nick Harvey: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) contribution to the safety and security for the London 2012 Olympic Games was announced to Parliament on 15 December 2011, Official Report, columns 116-17WS. This set out that, in support of the police and other civil and Olympic authorities, the MOD would provide up to 13,500 personnel to ensure the Olympic and Paralympic Games are safe and secure.
	Up to 7,500 will support the smooth running of Olympic sites, while the remainder will use their specialist capabilities and equipment to contribute to the delivery of Olympic security. A further statement on the use of reservists as part of this contribution was made on the 20 February 2012, Official Report, columns 64-65WS.

Sea Wolf Missiles

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the Sea Wolf Missile System will reach its out of service date; and what system is planned to replace it.

Peter Luff: holding answer 18 June 2012
	On current plans, the Sea Wolf system will reach its out of service date in 2020. It will be replaced by a new local area air defence system named Sea Ceptor which will initially be fitted on Type 23 frigates from late 2016, and is then planned to provide the basis for the future air defence capability for the Type 26 Global Combat Ship from 2021.

Allergies

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  whether he has any plans to increase the level of provision of immunotherapy services through specialist allergy centres for people with severe uncontrolled allergic rhinitis; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what progress he is making in increasing the number of regional specialist allergy centres in England; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Burstow: The Department funded a project in the North West Strategic Health Authority to pilot the concept of an integrated regional service for allergy and immunotherapy services, and the "lessons learned" report has been widely disseminated. We expect local and national commissioners to take full account of this report in developing allergy services in the light of local needs and priorities.

Allergies

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what estimate he has made of the number of (a) males and (b) females in each age group who have (i) food and (ii) inhalant allergies; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what estimate he has made of the number of (a) males and (b) females with hayfever in each age group in the last year; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Burstow: The Department has made no recent estimate of the prevalence of common allergies. A review carried out in 2006 on behalf of the Department by Professor John Newton estimated that around 6% of children less than three years old were affected by food allergies, including allergy to milk and to eggs, and that about 4% of adults had a food allergy of some sort, most frequently to shellfish or to nuts. Estimates for the proportion of patients by age group consulting a general practitioner for allergic rhinitis (including hay fever) are given in the following table; these figures will however understate the number of people suffering from hay fever, since many people with this .condition do not consult a doctor. Estimates for inhalant allergies are not available.
	
		
			 Proportion of patients consulting a GP for allergic rhinitis at some point during 2004 (rates per 10,000) 
			  Age standardised rate (95% CI) All ages <1 1-4 5-14 15-24 25-44 45-64 65-74 75+ 
			 Male 152 (147-158) 152 5 112 308 241 143 86 84 77 
			 Female 171 (165-177) 173 0 73 224 305 214 121 89 70

Allergies

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent (a) discussions he has had with and (b) representations he has received from the British Medical Association on the treatment of patients with hayfever; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Burstow: There have been no such representations or discussions.

Allergies: Prescription Drugs

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information his Department collects on trends in the level of prescribed medication for the relief of hayfever; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Burstow: The following table provides the numbers of prescription items dispensed for medicines that may have been used to treat hay fever, taken from three sections of the British National Formulary (BNF).
	
		
			 Number of prescription items written in the UK and dispensed in the community, in England 
			  BNF 11.4.2 Other anti-inflammatory preparations (1) BNF 12.2.1 Drugs used in nasal allergy (1) BNF 3.4.1 Antihistamines (1) Total 
			 2002 1,352,155 4,433,933 8,356,615 14,142,703 
			 2003 1,367,768 4,491,490 8,522,913 14,382,171 
			 2004 1,413,721 4,503,651 8,615,941 14,533,313 
		
	
	
		
			 2005 1,456,963 4,644,196 8,801,773 14,902,932 
			 2006 1,541,187 4,816,022 9,136,310 15,493,519 
			 2007 1,508,719 4,998,264 9,346,175 15,853,158 
			 2008 1,615,290 5,335,056 9,812,115 16,762,461 
			 2009 1,672,617 5,630,523 10,489,562 17,792,702 
			 2010 1,655,297 5,918,929 11,059,214 18,633,440 
			 2011 1,594,293 6,180,649 11,558,280 19,333,222 
			 (1) The Department does not collect information on the condition treated by a prescribed medicine. Not all the prescription items dispensed may have been for the treatment of hay fever. Source: Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) system

Cancer

Tracey Crouch: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average length of stay was of patients with each cancer type, following an emergency admission to hospital in (a) England and (b) each hospital trust in the last two years.

Simon Burns: Information concerning the average length of stay of patients with each cancer type following an emergency admission to hospital in England and each strategic health authority (SHA) area in the last two years has been placed in. the Library. SHA level data has been provided because hospital trust level data would require severe suppression of statistics in order to protect patient confidentiality.

Carbon Monoxide: Poisoning

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to prevent cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Anne Milton: The Department seeks to prevent cases of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning by raising medical professional and general awareness of CO. As part of that process the then interim chief medical officer and chief nursing officer published updated guidance on the diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning on 11 November 2010. This is available at:
	www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Lettersandcirculars/Professionalletters/Chiefmedicalofficerletters/DH_121502
	Furthermore an estimate of 4,000 patients per year attending accident and emergency departments and diagnosed with CO poisoning was published in November 2011 to highlight the serious health impact of CO poisoning. This is available at:
	www.dh.gov.uk/health/2011/11/co-poisoning/
	The Department is currently working with other departments on the revision of safety information on disposable barbecues and barbecue fuels to highlight the danger of CO poisoning and the Health Protection Agency has recently issued a press release to highlight the risk of CO poisoning whilst camping. This is available at:
	www.hpa.org.uk/NewsCentre/NationalPressReleases/2012PressReleases/120601CampersremindedofCOriskofBBQs/

Care Quality Commission

Daniel Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which Ministers in his Department authorised the decision in 2009 by the Care Quality Commission to abolish (a) its national investigation team, (b) its healthcare associated infection team and (c) a whistleblower telephone line; and for what reason those decisions were taken.

Simon Burns: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England and it is responsible at board level for all decisions of an operational nature.
	The following information has been provided by the CQC.
	The CQC has never had dedicated whistle blowing telephone line as calls have always been, and continue to be, handled through the CQCs National Customer Service Centre telephone line. The CQC has a dedicated team of call handlers to deal with whistleblowing calls and are responsible for tracking contacts through to a satisfactory conclusion with CQC inspectors. Since this specialist team was set up in June 2011, it has dealt with over 4,200 contacts.
	The decision to move to a new field force model for the CQC inspectors included the abolition, of the CQC national investigations team and healthcare associated infection teams. This was discussed in a private meeting of the CQC Board on Wednesday 9 December 2009.
	The CQC has provided a copy of the relevant part of the minutes of that meeting, which has already been placed in the Library.

Diagnosis

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people there were in England and Wales with swan syndrome in the last three years.

Anne Milton: The Department does not collect this information centrally.
	SWAN stands for syndromes without a name. It is not a syndrome or diagnosis in and of itself. It is a collective term, which represents those people who have a condition that is currently undiagnosed.

Fertility: Medical Treatments

Daniel Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the safety of intracytoplasmic sperm injections for couples receiving fertility treatment.

Anne Milton: We are aware of recent research that has suggested a link between the use of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and the occurrence of birth defects. However, the research also makes clear that the increased risk identified from the use of ICSI is small and that it cannot be established whether it is attributable to the use of the ICSI technique or is related to the male factor fertility problems that require its use.
	The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates the provision of in vitro fertilisation treatments in the United Kingdom, which include ICSI, monitors research on the safety of treatment techniques. The HFEA's Scientific and Clinical Advances Advisory Committee regularly meets and is to consider this ICSI research at its June meeting. The minutes of the Committee's meetings can be found on the authority's website at:
	www.hfea.gov.uk/SCAAC.html
	Both the Government and the HFEA welcome further research on the safety of treatment techniques. To assist this, steps have already been taken to make the extensive treatment data held by the HFEA more readily available for use in research.

Food

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to put in place a strategy to reduce calorie intake by the general public in restaurants, cafes and shops. [112210 ]
	 Question number missing in Hansard, possibly truncated question.

Anne Milton: ‘Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A call to action on obesity in England’, which has been placed in the Library, underlined the need for the population to reduce its calorie over-consumption. In March 2012, the Government announced a first group of major signatories to a Public Health Responsibility Deal pledge to reduce calories.
	This pledge calls for the food and drink industry, including restaurants, cafes and shops, to enable their customers to eat and drink fewer calories through actions such as product/menu reformulation, reviewing portion sizes, education and information, and actions to shift the marketing mix towards lower calorie options. There are currently 24 businesses signed up to the calorie reduction pledge and we are seeking further commitments.
	In addition, the Government's Responsibility Deal out of home calorie labelling pledge is designed to help people make healthier choices through the provision of calorie information in out of home settings, such as restaurants and cafes. There are currently 45 businesses signed up to the out of home calorie labelling pledge.

Food: Labelling

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will require food manufacturers to label their foods more precisely in order to avoid serious allergic reactions; what regulation applies to such labelling; and if he will make a statement.

Anne Milton: The Government is very aware of the need to protect the health of consumers with food allergies and this is why food allergens are already required to be clearly declared on the labels of pre-packed foods.
	Directives 2003/89/EC and 2006/142/EC established a list of 14 food ingredients which must be indicated on the label of pre-packed foods as they are likely to cause adverse reactions in people suffering from food allergy. The allergens that have to be declared are those of greatest public health concern for allergy sufferers in the European Union. However, the legislation would allow for other foods to be added to the list should the need arise.
	Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the provision of food information to consumers which comes into force in December 2014 will require the specified allergenic ingredients not only to be listed and but also highlighted in the ingredients list for pre-packed foods and will also introduce a new requirement to provide allergy information for foods sold non pre-packed, including food supplied by the catering sector.

General Practitioners

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that GPs adopt a better working relationship with Government and ensure that the cheaper systems are operated in terms of telephone call systems as well as paying for simple support letters or forms.

Simon Burns: The Department issued guidance and directions to national health service bodies in December 2009 on the cost of telephone calls, which prohibit the use of telephone numbers that charge the patient more than the equivalent cost of calling a geographical number to contact the NHS. It is currently the responsibility of primary care trusts to ensure that local practices are compliant with the directions and guidance.
	We feel that it is important that services provided by general practitioners (GPs), which are funded by the NHS, are delivered to, and for the benefit of, the majority of patients. However, under the terms of their contract for the provision of NHS primary medical services, GPs are required to provide certain medical reports, or complete certain forms, such as those required to support a claim for incapacity benefit, free of charge to their registered patients. GPs also provide a variety of other services which successive governments have regarded as private matters between the patient and the doctor providing the service. The doctor is free to make a charge for these non-NHS services if he or she wishes.

Homeopathy

David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that access to homeopathic medicines is not restricted.

Anne Milton: There are no planned changes to either the current regulatory status or the longstanding regulations governing the access to, or the sale and supply of, homeopathic products. Provision for homeopathic products is set out in Directive 2001/83/EC as amended by 2004/27/EC Directive 2001/83/EC. Activities currently permitted will continue to be permitted.

Hospitals: Sick Leave

Daniel Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many days of staff sickness absence there were in (a) foundation trust hospitals and (b) other NHS hospitals in England on average per employee in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Simon Burns: Sickness absence is not reported by the number of days absence because of the difficulty in defining a standard working day in the national health service. Different shift patterns and the 24-hour nature of employment in the national health service mean that a percentage of whole time equivalents is the standard used to define levels of sickness absence data in the national health service.
	The most recent figures for sickness absence can be found on the national health service information centre's website at:
	www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/workforce/sickness-absence
	The national health service information centre is currently preparing to publish an annual summary of sickness absence rates for the NHS for 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12. This will be published on 24 July 2012. It will not contain sickness absence rates per employee due to the reasons given above, however it will include a table presenting 'Sickness Absence Rates' per organisation including 'Full Time Equivalent Days Lost to Sickness Absence' and 'Full Time Equivalent Days Available' per organisation for each financial year that data is available.

Liver Diseases: Death

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he plans to take to reduce the incidence of deaths from liver disease caused by excessive alcohol and obesity.

Anne Milton: Liver disease mortality in the under-65 age group across all other major demographic classifications is a growing problem in the United Kingdom. Blood borne virus, alcohol consumption and obesity are major contributing factors to the development of liver disease.
	Martin Lombard, National Clinical Director for liver disease, has been working with specialist associations and patient representative groups to identify the strategic interventions that can be made to improve outcomes for patients. He will be consulting key partners on the resulting draft outcomes strategy over this summer.
	“The Governments Alcohol Strategy” (March 2012), which has been already placed in the Library, and “Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A call to action on obesity in England” (October 2011), which has been placed in the Library, include several actions that will support reductions in liver disease mortality.

Multiple Sclerosis

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what estimate he has made of total expenditure on multiple sclerosis in (a) each primary care trust and (b) England in the last five years;
	(2)  how many (a) emergency admissions and (b) elective admissions were recorded for patients with multiple sclerosis in each primary care trust in England in the last year for which figures are available;
	(3)  what the average length of stay was for a patient admitted with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in each primary care trust in England in the last year for which figures are available.

Paul Burstow: Information on the total expenditure on multiple sclerosis is not collected centrally as funding for services is included in the general allocation to the national health service.
	Table 1 provides data on finished admission episodes(1) (elective and emergency(2)) with a primary diagnosis of multiple sclerosis(3) by primary care trust (PCT) of main provider(4) 2010-11.
	
		
			 Table 1: A ctivity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector 
			   Admissions 
			 PCT of main provider name PCT code Elective Emergency 
			 Ashton, Leigh and Wigan PCT 5HG 15 * 
			 Barnet PCT 5A9 34 22 
			 Barnsley PCT 5JE 67 12 
			 Bath and North East Somerset PCT 5FL 229 15 
			 Bedfordshire PCT 5P2 * 9 
			 Berkshire East PCT 5QG 113 11 
			 Berkshire West PCT 5QF 69 16 
			 Bexley Care Trust TAK 446 145 
			 Birmingham East and North PCT 5PG 9 31 
			 Blackburn with Darwen Teaching Care Trust Plus TAP 39 13 
			 Blackpool PCT 5HP — 24 
			 Bolton PCT 5HQ * 6 
			 Bournemouth and Poole Teaching PCT 5QN 187 19 
			 Bradford and Airedale teaching PCT 5NY 12 34 
			 Brent Teaching PCT 5K5 7 15 
			 Brighton and Hove City PCT 5LQ 47 36 
			 Bristol PCT 5QJ * * 
			 Buckinghamshire PCT 5QD 257 19 
			 Cambridgeshire PCT 5PP 248 33 
			 Camden PCT 5K7 1,918 101 
			 Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT 5NP * 8 
			 Central Lancashire PCT 5NG 442 49 
			 City and Hackney Teaching PCT 5C3 — * 
			 Cornwall and Isles of Scilly PCT 5QP 357 13 
			 Coventry Teaching PCT 5MD 871 18 
			 Croydon PCT 5K9 * 19 
			 Cumbria Teaching PCT 5NE 178 50 
			 Darlington PCT 5J9 10 10 
			 Derby City PCT 5N7 86 21 
			 Derbyshire County PCT 5N6 15 18 
			 Devon PCT 5QQ 240 30 
			 Doncaster PCT 5N5 10 20 
			 Dorset PCT 5QM * 12 
		
	
	
		
			 Dudley PCT 5PE 12 8 
			 Ealing PCT 5HX * 8 
			 East Lancashire Teaching PCT 5NH * — 
			 East Riding of Yorkshire PCT 5NW * — 
			 East Sussex Downs and Weald PCT 5P7 * * 
			 Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT 5QA 186 34 
			 Enfield PCT 5C1 * * 
			 Gateshead PCT 5KF — * 
			 Gloucestershire PCT 5QH 552 32 
			 Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCT 5PR * 14 
			 Hampshire PCT 5QC 6 40 
			 Haringey teaching PCT 5C9 — * 
			 Harrow PCT 5K6 * — 
			 Hartlepool PCT 5D9 * 7 
			 Hastings and Rother PCT 5P8 40 18 
			 Havering PCT 5A4 57 49 
			 Heart of Birmingham Teaching PCT 5MX 196 26 
			 Herefordshire PCT 5CN 22 11 
			 Hertfordshire PCT 5QV 25 36 
			 Hillingdon PCT 5AT 106 24 
			 Hounslow PCT 5HY * 11 
			 Hull Teaching PCT 5NX 544 30 
			 Isle of Wight NHS PCT 5QT — * 
			 Islington PCT 5K8 — 6 
			 Kensington and Chelsea PCT 5LA 18 12 
			 Kingston PCT 5A5 * 37 
			 Kirklees PCT 5N2 69 22 
			 Knowsley PCT 5J4 * 6 
			 Lambeth PCT 5LD 70 20 
			 Leeds PCT 5N1 460 22 
			 Leicester City PCT 5PC 308 27 
			 Leicestershire County and Rutland PCT 5PA * 8 
			 Lewisham PCT 5LF * 8 
			 Lincolnshire Teaching PCT 5N9 373 37 
			 Liverpool PCT 5NL 792 22 
			 Luton PCT 5GC 46 8 
			 Manchester PCT 5NT 75 47 
			 Medway PCT 5L3 — 11 
			 Mid Essex PCT 5PX 662 28 
			 Middlesbrough PCT 5KM 373 28 
			 Milton Keynes PCT 5CQ 6 9 
			 Newcastle PCT 5D7 1,798 32 
			 Newham PCT 5C5 * * 
			 Norfolk PCT 5PQ 349 23 
			 North East Essex PCT 5PW 22 21 
			 North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus TAN 83 23 
			 North Somerset PCT 5M8 * 6 
			 North Staffordshire PCT 5PH * — 
			 North Tyneside PCT 5D8 41 26 
		
	
	
		
			 North Yorkshire and York PCT 5NV 256 38 
			 Northamptonshire Teaching PCT 5PD 10 18 
			 Nottingham City PCT 5EM 771 403 
			 Nottinghamshire County Teaching PCT 5N8 125 16 
			 Oxfordshire PCT 5QE 243 19 
			 Peterborough PCT 5PN * 7 
			 Plymouth teaching PCT 5F1 252 22 
			 Portsmouth City Teaching PCT 5FE 9 17 
			 Redcar and Cleveland PCT 5QR * * 
			 Rotherham PCT 5H8 * 19 
			 Salford PCT 5F5 936 33 
			 Sefton PCT 5NJ * 8 
			 Sheffield PCT 5N4 1,165 75 
			 Shropshire County PCT 5M2 138 15 
			 Somerset PCT 5QL 335 19 
			 South Birmingham PCT 5M1 616 44 
			 South East Essex PCT 5P1 11 12 
			 South Gloucestershire PCT 5A3 574 92 
			 South Staffordshire PCT 5PK 109 36 
			 South Tyneside PCT 5KG — * 
			 South West Essex PCT 5PY 97 21 
			 Southampton City PCT 5L1 451 18 
			 Southwark PCT 5LE 12 15 
			 Stockport PCT 5F7 9 17 
			 Stoke on Trent PCT 5PJ 1,168 20 
			 Suffolk PCT 5PT 22 32 
			 Sunderland Teaching PCT 5KL 178 10 
			 Surrey PCT 5P5 70 67 
			 Sutton and Merton PCT 5M7 * 9 
			 Swindon PCT 5K3 234 14 
			 Tameside and Glossop PCT 5LH * 9 
			 Torbay Care Trust TAL 85 11 
			 Tower Hamlets PCT 5C4 693 9 
			 Trafford PCT 5NR * 8 
			 Wakefield District PCT 5N3 154 25 
			 Walsall Teaching PCT 5M3 50 6 
			 Waltham Forest PCT 5NC * 16 
			 Wandsworth PCT 5LG 505 24 
			 Warrington PCT 5J2 * * 
			 Warwickshire PCT 5PM. 15 * 
			 West Essex PCT 5PV * 13 
			 West Kent PCT 5P9 53 20 
			 West Sussex PCT 5P6 76 44 
			 Western Cheshire PCT 5NN * *. 
			 Westminster PCT 5LC 2,367 50 
			 Wiltshire PCT 5QK * 8 
			 Wirral PCT 5NK — 17 
			 Wolverhampton City PCT 5MV 26 15 
		
	
	
		
			 Worcestershire PCT 5PL 15 30 
			 (1) Finished admission episodes A finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one health care provider. FAEs are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. (2) Emergency and elective admissions An emergency admission is one where the admission method is recorded as one of the following codes: 21: Emergency—via Accident and Emergency (A&E) services, including the casualty department of the provider 22: Emergency—via General Practitioner (GP) 23: Emergency—via Bed Bureau, including the Central Bureau 24: Emergency—via consultant out-patient clinic 28: Emergency—other means, including patients who arrive via the A&E department Elective admissions are those episodes with an admission method of: 11 = Elective: from waiting list 12 = Elective: booked 13 = Elective: planned (3) Primary diagnosis of multiple sclerosis The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and seven prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital. The ICD code for multiple sclerosis is G3. (4) PCT of main provider This indicates the PCT area within which the organisation providing treatment was located. Note: Small numbers. To protect patient confidentiality, figures between one and five have been replaced with “*” (an asterisk). Where it was still possible to identify numbers from the total an additional number (the next smallest) has been replaced. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2: Average (1)  length of stay for FAEs with a primary diagnosis (2)  of multiple sclerosis (3)  by PCT (4)  of main provider in England, 2010-11. Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector. 
			 Provider code Provider description Mean average Median average 
			  England 12 4 
			 5HG Ashton, Leigh and Wigan PCT 30 20 
			 5A9 Barnet PCT 15 9 
			 5JE Barnsley PCT 14 10 
			 5FL Bath and North East Somerset PCT 15 4 
			 5P2 Bedfordshire PCT 7 5 
			 5QG Berkshire East PCT 8 5 
			 5QF Berkshire West PCT 19 8 
			 TAK Bexley Care Trust 16 7 
			 5PG Birmingham East and North PCT 10 4 
			 TAP Blackburn with Darwen Teaching Care Trust Plus 24 11 
			 5HP Blackpool PCT 10 4 
			 5HQ Bolton PCT 16 8 
			 5QN Bournemouth and Poole Teaching PCT 13 7 
			 5NY Bradford and Airedale Teaching PCT 18 7 
			 5K5 Brent Teaching PCT 14 9 
			 5LQ Brighton and Hove City PCT 10 4 
			 5QJ Bristol PCT 23 12 
			 5QD Buckinghamshire PCT 14 6 
			 5PP Cambridgeshire PCT 9 3 
			 5K7 Camden PCT 9 2 
			 5NP Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT 11 7 
			 5NG Central Lancashire PCT 10 4 
		
	
	
		
			 5C3 City and Hackney Teaching PCT * * 
			 5QP Cornwall and Isles of Scilly PCT 8 7 
			 5MD Coventry Teaching PCT 13 7 
			 5K9 Croydon PCT 11 9 
			 5NE Cumbria Teaching PCT 18 6 
			 5J9 Darlington PCT 17 8 
			 5N7 Derby City PCT 15 5 
			 5N6 Derbyshire County PCT 13 5 
			 5QQ Devon PCT 24 8 
			 5N5 Doncaster PCT 7 2 
			 5QM Dorset PCT 12 7 
			 5PE Dudley PCT 8 6 
			 5HX Ealing PCT 4 2 
			 5NH East Lancashire Teaching PCT — — 
			 5NW East Riding of Yorkshire PCT * * 
			 5P7 East Sussex Downs and Weald PCT * * 
			 5QA Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT 15 11 
			 5C1 Enfield PCT 13 13 
			 5KF Gateshead PCT * * 
			 5QH Gloucestershire PCT 11 5 
			 5PR Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCT 17 5 
			 5QC Hampshire PCT 12 5 
			 5C9 Haringey Teaching PCT * * 
			 5K6 Harrow PCT — — 
			 5D9 Hartlepool PCT 11 6 
			 5P8 Hastings and Rother PCT 29 8 
			 5A4 Havering PCT 18 6 
			 5MX Heart of Birmingham Teaching PCT 11 2 
			 5CN Herefordshire PCT 24 8 
			 5QV Hertfordshire PCT 31 4 
			 5AT Hillingdon PCT 32 14 
			 5HY Hounslow PCT 16 5 
			 5NX Hull Teaching PCT 18 5 
			 5QT Isle of Wight NHS PCT * * 
			 5K8 Islington PCT 17 6 
			 5LA Kensington and Chelsea PCT 10 1 
			 5A5 Kingston PCT 10 1 
			 5N2 Kirklees PCT 13 6 
			 5J4 Knowsley PCT 9 7 
			 5LD Lambeth PCT 10 5 
			 5N1 Leeds PCT 22 8 
			 5PC Leicester City PCT 9 4 
			 5PA Leicestershire County and Rutland PCT 26 16 
			 5LF Lewisham PCT 17 5 
			 5N9 Lincolnshire Teaching PCT 20 10 
			 5NL Liverpool PCT 10 6 
			 5GC Luton PCT 2 1 
			 5NT Manchester PCT 25 8 
			 5L3 Medway PCT 10 4 
			 5PX Mid Essex PCT 8 2 
			 5KM Middlesbrough PCT 9 1 
			 5CQ Milton Keynes PCT 16 5 
		
	
	
		
			 5D7 Newcastle PCT 10 3 
			 5C5 Newham PCT 12 6 
			 5PQ Norfolk PCT 12 3 
			 5PW North East Essex PCT 6 4 
			 TAN North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus 5 2 
			 5M8 North Somerset PCT 15 5 
			 5PH North Staffordshire PCT * * 
			 5D8 North Tyneside PCT 15 5 
			 5NV North Yorkshire and York PCT 32 4 
			 5PD Northamptonshire Teaching PCT 14 4 
			 5EM Nottingham City PCT 4 0 
			 5N8 Nottinghamshire County Teaching PCT 14 14 
			 5QE Oxfordshire PCT 9 4 
			 5PN Peterborough PCT 14 3 
			 5F1 Plymouth Teaching PCT 10 4 
			 5FE Portsmouth City Teaching PCT 12 5 
			 5QR Redcar and Cleveland PCT * * 
			 5H8 Rotherham PCT 20 5 
			 5F5 Salford PCT 7 2 
			 5NJ Sefton PCT 11 4 
			 5N4 Sheffield PCT 14 5 
			 5M2 Shropshire County PCT 13 6 
			 5QL Somerset PCT 19 11 
			 5M1 South Birmingham PCT 20 6 
			 5P1 South East Essex PCT 14 5 
			 5A3 South Gloucestershire PCT 3 0 
			 5PK South Staffordshire PCT 10 3 
			 5KG South Tyneside PCT * * 
			 5PY South West Essex PCT 11 4 
			 5L1 Southampton City PCT 18 10 
			 5LE Southwark PCT 8 4 
			 5F7 Stockport PCT 23 6 
			 5PJ Stoke on Trent PCT 13 5 
			 5PT Suffolk PCT 8 5 
			 5KL Sunderland Teaching PCT 9 2 
			 5P5 Surrey PCT 7 3 
			 5M7 Sutton and Merton PCT 24 9 
			 5K3 Swindon PCT 6 3 
			 5LH Tameside and Glossop PCT 8 3 
			 TAL Torbay Care Trust 5 3 
			 5C4 Tower Hamlets PCT 3 2 
			 5NR Trafford PCT 21 9 
			 5N3 Wakefield District PCT 7 0 
			 5M3 Walsall Teaching PCT 4 3 
			 5NC Waltham Forest PCT 11 6 
			 5LG Wandsworth PCT 22 7 
			 5J2 Warrington PCT 13 8 
			 5PM Warwickshire PCT 29 4 
			 5PV West Essex PCT 4 2 
			 5P9 West Kent PCT 15 3 
			 5P6 West Sussex PCT 5 0 
			 5NN Western Cheshire PCT 17 10 
			 5LC Westminster PCT 4 1 
			 5QK Wiltshire PCT 8 7 
			 5NK Wirral PCT 13 6 
			 5MV Wolverhampton City PCT 21 6 
		
	
	
		
			 5PL Worcestershire PCT 20 5 
			 (1) Mean length of stay The average length of stay based on the difference between the admission date and discharge date in days of each spelt, summed for all spells and divided by the number of spells where a valid duration has been recorded. This excludes day cases and periods of care where the length of stay is less than one full day. (2) Primary diagnosis The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and seven prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital. (3) Multiple sclerosis The ICD code for Multiple Sclerosis is G35 (4) PCT of main provider This indicates the PCT area within which the organisation providing treatment was located. Notes: 1. Finished admission episodes. An FAE is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. FAEs are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. 2. Small numbers. To protect patient confidentiality, figures (both the mean and median) where the denominator of the mean is between one and five have been replaced with “*” (an asterisk). 3. Data quality. HES are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and PCTs in England and from some independent sector organisations for activity commissioned by the English NHS. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. Source: HES, HSCIC

NHS: Manpower

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) NHS doctors, (b) GPs, (c) NHS dentists and (d) NHS nurses were employed in (i) Jarrow constituency, (ii) South Tyneside, (iii) the north-east and (iv) the UK in each year since 2005.

Simon Burns: Information is not collected at constituency level by the Department.
	A table giving the detail of staff employed in the North East Strategic Health Authority, which is made up of Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, Gateshead Primary Care Trust, South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust, South Tyneside Primary Care Trust and England has been placed in the Library.

NHS: Pay

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total cost was of salaries in the NHS for (a) medical staff and (b) non-medical staff in the latest period for which figures are available.

Simon Burns: Information on aggregate national health service salaries broken down by staff group is not held centrally.
	It is estimated that in 2010-11 aggregate earnings for hospital and community health services were around £7.9 billion for medical staff and around £28.3 billion for non-medical staff, of which, the basic earnings element is estimated at around £5.9 billion for medical staff and around £25.1 billion for non-medical staff.

NHS: Property

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the (a) legal and (b) other costs of NHS Property and Estates Transfers.

Simon Burns: The Department is currently tendering for professional services in connection with primary care trust property and estates transfers to NHS Property Services Ltd. For commercial reasons, therefore, it is not possible to provide art estimate of legal or other costs that will be incurred by the Department in association with transfers to NHS Property Services Ltd.
	Primary care trusts (PCTs) and national health service providers have their own budgets for managing the transfer of property and estates, as part of the transition process.
	NHS Property Services Ltd will hold property for use by community and primary care services, cut the costs of administering the estate by consolidating the management of over 150 estates and dispose of property identified by the local NHS as surplus to requirements, in order to return vital funds to frontline NHS services.

NHS: Property

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether any NHS property or other assets transferred from primary care trusts through Property and Estates Transfers will be transferred out of public ownership; and which assets will be affected.

Simon Burns: All existing primary care trust property and other assets will transfer on 31 March 2013 to either national health service providers or NHS Property Services Ltd, a limited company wholly owned by the Secretary of State for Health, my right hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr Lansley), thereby remaining in public ownership.

Nutrition: School meals

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on nutritional standards for school meals in free schools; and if he will make a statement.

Anne Milton: Ministers have held no discussions about the nutritional standards for school meals in free schools with Ministers at the Department for Education (DFE). However, Department of Health officials do meet with officials from DFE to discuss such matters.
	DFE has policy responsibility for the school food standards, and Ministers discussed these with Ministers from DFE during the preparation of the document, “Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A Call to action on obesity in England”. A copy of the call to action has been placed in the Library.

Organs: Transplant Surgery

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what procedures are in place to check transplant organs for disease before a transplant takes place; and how many tests were carried out in the latest period for which figures are available.

Anne Milton: There have been 3,960 transplants from both living and deceased donors carried out in financial year 2011-12. However, information on the total number of tests carried out is not held centrally as these are arranged by individual trusts.
	It is the responsibility of the Specialist Nurse for Organ Donation to perform a comprehensive physical assessment of the donor, and to request expert help if required. A full medical history of the donor is always obtained from the medical notes and from talking to the donor's family as well as microbiological screening by a blood test. Tests are also undertaken to ascertain how well the organs are functioning. This takes account of the cause of death, documented medical history and lifestyle and information gained through talking to relatives and the donor's general practitioner.
	The surgeons at retrieval will also examine the organs and the whole abdominal area to check for any signs of damage or disease in a bid to minimise the risks of communicable diseases. If required urgent biopsy examinations are carried out, the. results of which are documented and communicated to the transplant teams who can choose to accept or reject the organs.
	Additional tests and investigations are carried out on a case by case basis, usually at the request of the transplant centres either prior to or during retrieval. The transplanting surgeon will also assess the organ for suitability and size prior to transplantation. The consultant will confirm only at that point, that the organ is suitable for the planned recipient.

Osteoporosis

Daniel Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent progress the NHS has made in improving outcomes for patients with osteoporosis.

Paul Burstow: Osteoporosis: secondary prevention of fragility fractures is included as an indicator in the Quality and Outcomes Framework for 2012-13. General practitioners are now asked to produce a register of high risk patients with previous fragility fractures. The Government has funded several cycles of the national falls and bone health audit and national hip fracture database. The best practice tariff for hip fracture continues and there have already been demonstrable benefits in the management of patients with hip fractures as a result.
	In addition, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published technology appraisal guidance recommending a number of drugs for the primary and secondary prevention of osteoporotic fragility fractures, and has also produced a clinical guideline on the management of hip fractures in adults. NICE is also currently developing a new clinical guideline on the risk assessment of fragility fracture in people with or at risk of osteoporosis, and plans to publish its final guidance later this year.

Oxygen

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for the future use of oxygen chambers in the health sector; and what information his Department holds on the price to purchase and use such chambers.

Simon Burns: Primary care trusts (PCTs) currently have responsibility for commissioning hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) services.
	From April 2013 commissioning of services such as HBOT services will be a matter for clinical commissioning groups or the NHS Commissioning Board for certain services that are set out in regulations.
	The Department does not hold information on the cost of oxygen chambers.

Patients: Privacy

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  when his Department next plans to review the guidance that it issues to NHS trusts; and if he will ensure that any such guidance deals with policy on observation;
	(2)  what system is in place to monitor NHS trusts' policies on media access to and interviewing, photography and observation within hospitals insofar as this relates to patients;
	(3)  how many NHS trusts have received complaints from patients on intrusion on their privacy due to filming, photography and other recording in hospitals.

Simon Burns: The rights of national health service patients to privacy are a matter of law which NHS organisations follow in developing their policies and procedures locally to ensure their patients privacy. Guidance has been issued by the Department to assist the NHS in relation to specific areas of privacy, including “Guidance on filming in the NHS” a copy of which has already been placed in the Library and “Using mobile phones in NHS hospitals” which has been placed in the Library.
	The NHS Constitution reflects the NHS's legal duty to respect a patient's private life, stating for patients in Section 2a:
	You have the right to be treated with dignity and respect, in accordance with your human rights.
	You have the right to privacy and confidentiality and to expect the NHS to keep your confidential information safe and secure.
	Data on written complaints is collected by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) from the NHS. In 2010-11, the NHS reported 1,131 written complaints received relating to privacy and dignity. However, it is not known how many of these, if any, related to observation and photography.
	The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) enshrines the right to respect for private and family life set out in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) which states:
	(i) Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence,
	(ii) There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law arid is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
	In addition. Section 119 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 includes an offence of causing nuisance or disturbance on NHS premises. A person may commit an offence if he or she causes, without reasonable excuse and whilst on NHS hospital premises, a nuisance or disturbance against an NHS staff member and refuses to leave when asked to do so by a police constable or NHS staff member. Persons who are not seeking medical advice, treatment or care could commit the offence if they, for example, use a mobile phone in such a way as to cause a nuisance or disturbance to an NHS staff member and where they fulfil the other elements of the offence.

Physiotherapy: Pupils

Stephen McPartland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what steps his Department is taking to work with the Department for Education to guarantee physiotherapy to pupils with physical and neurological disabilities;
	(2)  what steps his Department is taking to work with the Department for Education to guarantee occupational therapy to pupils with physical and neurological disabilities.

Anne Milton: Physiotherapy and occupational therapy services are provided on the basis of assessed clinical need. It is the responsibility of local heath care providers to commission services to meet the needs of their local communities including the provision of services for children and young people with physical and neurological disabilities.
	The Department of Health and Department for Education have worked together to develop the Government's Green Paper ‘Support and Aspiration—A new approach to SEN’ published in March 2011 and the Next Steps document published in May 2012. 20 pathfinders covering 31 local authorities and primary care clusters have been appointed to test the Green Paper proposals, including a new single assessment process with a single education, health and care plan and the option of a personal budget for children and families that would benefit from one.
	‘Support and Aspiration—A new approach to SEN’ is available at:
	www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/Green-Paper-SEN.pdf
	‘Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability—progress and next steps’ is available at:
	http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/s/support%20and%20aspiration%20a%20new%20approach %20to%20special%20educational%20needs%20and%20disability %20%20%20progress%20and%20next%20steps.pdf

Prescription Drugs: Shortages

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  when he expects to make a decision on whether to undertake a one-off survey of medicine shortages;
	(2)  what discussions he has had with external survey organisations on the (a) feasibility and (b) process of undertaking a one-off survey of medicine shortages;
	(3)  what evidential basis he will use to make a decision on whether to undertake a one-off survey of medicine shortages.

Simon Burns: We continue to work with suppliers and supply chain stakeholders to exchange information and seek solutions to supply issues so shortages are avoided and patients receive the medicines they need. We are considering with stakeholders taking forward a one-off survey. These discussions, include the timing, feasibility and process of such a survey. The basis of the decision on whether to undertake a one off survey will include a number of factors including the possible benefits from the survey, the cost and the possible additional burden on pharmacists.

Shellfish: Health Hazards

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department operates a system of warnings on the health risks of eating shellfish from heavily polluted areas; and how many cases of poisoning have arisen from eating such shellfish in each of the last five years.

Anne Milton: The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has statutory responsibilities in relation to the classification and monitoring of shellfish harvesting areas and is the lead body for the Government response to incidents involving the food chain including environmental pollution incidents that may present a food safety risk including sewage, chemical and oil spills.
	We are advised by the FSA that when an environmental pollution incident is reported, it will engage with local enforcement authorities to identify any food safety risks. Where such risks exist, they ensure that appropriate action is taken at a local level to protect public health.
	In respect of classified harvesting areas affected by environmental pollution, local authorities will issue a Temporary Prohibition Order to prevent further harvesting from that area. Notices will be displayed in the vicinity of the area and harvesters registered with the authority will be notified. Local authorities will also take steps to ensure that contaminated shellfish originating from the area are not placed on the market and that any already on the market are withdrawn. In respect of unclassified areas local authorities may post warning signs to inform recreational/private anglers or harvesters of the pollution incident or the area may be subject to an order made under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985.
	Data are set out in the following table on the number of cases of illness associated with shellfish reported in the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2011, excluding sporadic cases. These data are not specific to shellfish from heavily polluted areas as information is not collected at this level of detail.
	
		
			 Laboratory-confirmed cases associated with shellfish outbreaks 
			  England and Wales Scotland Northern Ireland UK 
			 2007 3 0 0 3 
			 2008 5 0 0 5 
			 2009 11 0 0 11 
			 2010 13 3 16 32 
			 2011 7 0 0 7 
			 Source: Health Protection Agency, Health Protection Scotland and Public Health Agency Northern Ireland, June 2012

Social Security Benefits: Compensation

David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the NHS has recovered under the (a) Road Traffic (NHS Charges) Act 1999 and (b) Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 in England in (i) 2009, (ii) 2010 and (iii) 2011; and what the administrative cost was of recovering such charges.

Simon Burns: The information requested is provided in the following table.
	
		
			 NHS Injury Cost Recovery Scheme (England) 
			 £ 
			  2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 
			 Motor 130,673,295 131,352,977 141,750,583 
			 Clinical Negligence 607,134 1,341,236 3,257,709 
			 Employer 13,661,251 17,710,402 22,373,021 
			 Other 340,993 581,020 746,709 
			 Public 12,633,411 18,012,614 23,613,311 
			 Liability Not Yet Known 62,137 51,933 41,701 
			 Total 157,978,221 169,050,181 191,783,034 
			 Note: The data reflects the total value of NHS Recoveries (including Ambulance Charges) received by the Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) between 1 April 2011-31 March 2012 relating to the NHS Injury Costs Recovery Scheme for trusts in England. The data has been broken down by liability type. 
		
	
	The Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 expanded the earlier recovery scheme in respect of road traffic accidents to cover all personal injury claims.

Strokes: Drugs

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for the introduction of the Pradaxa form of Dabigatran Etexilate Mesylate in place of the Warfrin form.

Simon Burns: The National. Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) provides advice to the national health service on the clinical and cost effectiveness of drugs and other health technologies. On 15 March 2012, NICE issued guidance to the NHS on the use of Pradaxa (dabigatran) for the prevention of stroke or systemic embolism in people with atrial fibrillation.
	There is a statutory obligation on the NHS to provide funding for treatments and drugs recommended by NICE technology appraisal guidance within three months of the NICE technology appraisal guidance being published.

Air Displays: Farnborough

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills which countries have been invited by the Government to send delegates to the Farnborough International Airshow in 2012; which countries have accepted such invitations; and which delegations attending that event will be composed of (a) military, (b) civil and (c) military and civil representatives.

Mark Prisk: As at 12 June 2012, the following 39 countries or organisations listed, have been invited to attend by Her Majesty's Government. The process of invitation and responses is ongoing and therefore detail of acceptances and the composition of delegations is incomplete. A full list of those countries attending will be published near the start of the event.
	Invited country
	Algeria
	Australia
	Austria
	Bahrain
	Brazil
	Brunei
	Canada
	Chile
	Colombia
	Denmark
	France
	Germany
	India
	Indonesia
	Iraq
	Italy
	Japan
	Jordan
	Korea
	Kuwait
	Libya
	Malaysia
	NATO
	Norway
	Oman
	Pakistan
	Peru
	Poland
	Qatar
	Saudi Arabia
	South Africa
	Spain
	Sweden
	Switzerland
	Turkey
	UAE
	UN
	USA
	Vietnam.

Apprentices

Michael McCann: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many apprenticeships are provided by (a) IT and (b) FM contractors to the civil service.

John Hayes: We do not hold details of the numbers of apprenticeship places created through public procurement contracts
	However, we are keen to maximise the contribution public procurement can make to our drive to increase apprenticeship numbers through adopting a flexible and voluntary approach rather than making it a mandatory requirement in every contract.
	We have established a Ministerial Champions Group to raise awareness of the benefits of apprenticeships and to encourage Ministers to promote apprenticeships within their spheres of responsibility. We are also exploring the development of ‘kitemarking’ good employers, including public sector suppliers who invest in skills and apprenticeships in their workforce. Finally, we are working with officials in the Cabinet Office to consider how streamlined information on skills can be incorporated into Cabinet Office procurement guidance.
	Consideration of skills and apprenticeships in the procurement process must take place on a case-by-case basis, assessing whether they are relevant and proportionate to the contract, do not discriminate and are consistent with value for money policy.

Apprentices

Oliver Colvile: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what support his Department provides for apprenticeships for people over the age of 30 years.

John Hayes: The Apprenticeship programme is an all age programme, which aims to improve the skills base of the work force and is designed to respond flexibly to the skills needs of employers and individuals. For apprentices aged 19 and over the Government pays up to 50% of the assessed cost of the apprenticeship framework, although further adjustments are applied, such as for prior learning, where apprentices are with large employers and for people over 24. Employers are expected to make a contribution to the remainder of the training costs as well as paying the salary.

Apprentices

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether the Government has a single definition of an apprenticeship; and what the criteria are to meet that definition.

John Hayes: An apprenticeship is a job with a substantial programme of training. To be eligible for public funding and formal recognition of completion, an apprenticeship must meet all Apprenticeship Completion Conditions as set out in section 1 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009:
	1. Meaning of “completing an English apprenticeship”
	(2) A person completes an English apprenticeship in relation to an apprenticeship framework if
	(a) the standard English completion conditions are met, or
	(b) the alternative English completion conditions are met.
	(3) The standard English completion conditions are
	(a) that the person has entered into an apprenticeship agreement in connection with the apprenticeship framework,
	(b) that at the date of that agreement the framework was a recognised English framework,
	(c) that the person has completed a course of training for the competencies qualification identified in the framework,
	(d) that, throughout the duration of the course, the person was working under the apprenticeship agreement, and
	(e) that the person meets the requirements specified in the framework for the purpose of the issue of an apprenticeship certificate.
	(4) In subsection (3)(d)
	(a) the reference to the apprenticeship agreement mentioned in subsection (3)(a) includes a reference to any apprenticeship agreement which the person subsequently entered into in connection with the same apprenticeship framework;
	(b) the reference to the course of training for the competencies qualification is to be read, in a case where the person has followed two or more courses of training for the competencies qualification, as a reference to both or all of them.
	(5) The alternative English completion conditions are conditions which
	(a) apply in cases where a person works otherwise than under an apprenticeship agreement, and
	(b) are specified in regulations.
	(6) The kinds of working in relation to which provision may be made under subsection (5) include
	(a) working as a self-employed person;
	(b) working otherwise than for reward.

Apprentices: Loans

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what consultation he has had with employers' organisations on his plans to make access to and repayment of post-24 advanced learning loans the responsibility of individual apprentices.

John Hayes: In August 2011 the Government held a public consultation on proposals contained in 'New Challenges, New Chances', including 24+ Advanced Learning Loans. The Government received responses from a range of organisations, including employers, their representative bodies and work based training providers. In addition, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills established a Stakeholder Group in 2011 to provide additional advice as implementation plans for 24+ Advanced Learning Loans were developed. This group included employers and work based training providers. Finally, the Employer Reference Group run by the Skills Funding Agency has had regular discussion about the introduction of 24+ Advanced Learning Loans.

Apprentices: Loans

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to the Skills Funding Agency Guide to 24+ Advanced Learning Loans, how he intends to ensure that employers will continue to contribute a 50 per cent minimum fee rate for post-24 apprentices taking out Advanced Learning Loans.

John Hayes: From the 2013/14 academic year, there continues to be an assumption that employers will contribute towards the costs of an apprenticeship. It will be for the individual and employer, as part of their discussion about the suitability of an apprenticeship, to determine how the costs of that training will be met. If individuals aged 24 or above undertaking an advanced or higher apprenticeship need to contribute, they will have access to a 24+ Advanced Learning Loan.

Apprentices: Loans

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to the Skills Funding Agency Guide to 24+ Advanced Learning Loans, what estimate he has made of the number of post-24 apprentices who will continue repaying Advanced Learning Loans after they have been made redundant.

John Hayes: Apprentices aged 24 and over taking an advanced or higher apprenticeship who are made redundant will only be liable to repay the costs of the training they have received; and repayments will not begin until they are earning over £21,000.
	However, it is expected that training providers or the National Apprenticeship Service will support an apprentice who has been made redundant to find an alternative employer so that they can complete their apprenticeship. There are exceptional arrangements which may allow an apprentice to complete an apprenticeship in the case of redundancy where specified conditions are met and opportunities to gain the skills and knowledge are available without being in paid employment.

Apprentices: Loans

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what discussions he has had with the National Apprenticeship Service on the future careers prospects of advanced learners who are made redundant and have to repay Learning Loans.

John Hayes: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Skills Funding Agency are working with the National Apprenticeship Service as 24+ Advanced Learning Loans are implemented.
	It is expected that training providers or the National Apprenticeship Service will support an apprentice who has been made redundant to find an alternative employer so they can complete their apprenticeship. There are exceptional arrangements which may allow an apprentice to complete an apprenticeship in the case of redundancy where specified conditions are met and opportunities to gain the skills and knowledge are available without being in paid employment.
	Apprentices in this position will only be liable to repay the costs of the training they have received; and repayments will not begin until they are earning over £21,000. Meanwhile, the training and experience received while on the apprenticeship should enhance the future career prospects of the apprentice.

Apprentices: York

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills 
	(1)  how many people (a) started and (b) completed apprenticeships in the areas currently covered by (i) City of York Council and (ii) York Central constituency in (A) the most recent year for which figures are available, (B) 2010, (C) 1997 and (d) 1992;
	(2)  what proportion of the working age population of the areas currently covered by (a) York travel to work area, (b) City of York Council, (c) York Central constituency and (d) Yorkshire and the Humber hold qualifications equivalent to NVQ level 1, 2, 3 and 4.

John Hayes: Table 1 as follows gives the number of apprenticeship framework starts and achievements during the 2009/10 and 2010/11 academic years. Figures relating to 1992 and 1997 are not available.
	
		
			 Table 1: Apprenticeship framework starts and achievements by Geography, 2009/10 and 2010/11 
			  Starts Achievements 
			  2009/10 2010/11 2009/10 2010/11 
			 York central constituency 530 850 310 390 
			 York local education authority 950 1,490 580 690 
			 Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Geography is based upon the home postcode of the learner. 3. These figures are based on the geographic boundaries of regions as of May 2010. 4. Learners starting and achieving more than one framework will appear more than once. Source: Individualised Learner Record (ILR) 
		
	
	Information on the number of apprenticeship starts is published in a quarterly Statistical First Release (SFR). The latest SFR was published on 29 March 2012:
	http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/statisticalfirstrelease/sfr_current.
	Further breakdowns are available in SFR supplementary tables:
	http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/statisticalfirstrelease/sfr_supplementary_tables/.
	Table 2 as follows gives the proportion of the working age (19-59/64) population broken down by qualification level in 2010, for York local education authority and York travel to work area.
	
		
			 Table 2: Qualification levels of working age population by Geography, 2010 
			  Percentages 
			  Highest qualification level 
			  No qualification Below level 2 Level 2 or above Level 3 or above Level 4 or above 
			 York local education authority 5.9 12.1 82.0 67.5 42.7 
			 York travel to work area 6.5 13.7 79.8 62.9 41.1 
		
	
	
		
			  95% Confidence intervals 
			  Highest qualification level 
			  No qualification Below Level 2 Level 2 or above Level 3 or above Level 4 or above 
			 York local education authority +/- 1.5pp +/- 2.1pp +/- 2.5pp +/- 3.0pp +/- 3.2pp 
			 York travel to work area +/- 1.4pp +/- 2.0pp +/- 2.3pp +/- 2.8pp +/- 2.9pp 
			 Source: Annual Population Survey (APS) 
		
	
	The estimates in table 2 are sourced using the Annual Population survey (APS), which contains more data at lower-level geographies. While local authority level estimates and travel to work areas can be calculated from the APS , the sample is not large enough to provide estimates for smaller geographies such as all parliamentary constituencies. Furthermore, estimates for local authorities are subject to large sampling variability and should therefore be treated with caution and viewed in conjunction with their confidence intervals (CIs), which indicate how accurate an estimate is. For example, a CI of +A3.2 percentage points (pp) means that the true value is between 3.2pp above the estimate and 3.2pp below the estimate.
	It should be noted that the estimates in table 2 using the APS are not able to be adjusted for known issues of misreporting that the published national estimate can be using the Labour Force survey (LFS). At the national level these estimates could typically see small increases.
	Further sub-regional and regional estimates of educational attainment derived from the Annual Population survey (APS) are published are available in SFR supplementary tables:
	http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/statisticalfirstrelease/sfr_supplementary_tables/labour_force_survey_sfr_supplementary_tables/.

Business: Diamond Jubilee 2012

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the economic effect of Her Majesty the Queen's Diamond Jubilee on small businesses.

Mark Prisk: BIS has not undertaken a specific assessment of the economic effect of the Queen's diamond jubilee on small businesses.
	The Department for Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS), conducted an assessment of the costs and benefits associated with the additional bank holiday in June to mark the diamond jubilee, prior to the event. They deemed the bank holiday to have a potential impact on small businesses. But their assessment noted that there is no statutory obligation for employers to grant employees, or for employees to take the additional bank holiday off work or to give extra pay to employees working on a bank holiday. To mitigate the effect on small businesses, the Government made an early announcement of the bank holiday on 5 January 2010.
	http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/2011-diamond-jubilee-bank-holiday-impact-assessment.pdf

Debts Written Off

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much bad debt was written off by his Department in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: Details of the amount of bad debt written off by the Department can be found in its annual report and accounts. For 2010-11 this can be found at:
	http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/corporate/docs/b/11-p102-bis-annual-report-and-accounts-2010-11.pdf
	For ease, in 2010-11 the core Department wrote off £18,000 of bad debt and the consolidated Department wrote off a total of £98,633,000.
	The Department's 2011-12 year-end position is not yet finalised but will be published in the 2011-12 annual report and accounts which will be available via the Departments website and in the Libraries of the House.

Developing Countries: Trade

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what his policy is on the future of the Doha round; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: Concluding the Doha round would have delivered a huge boost to global trade and growth and we were very disappointed that it has not been possible to bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion. The coalition Government will continue to work with the EU to push for agreement on those elements of the round on which there has been good progress, particularly trade facilitation (removing obstacles to the movement of goods across borders), which would deliver significant benefits to all and particularly to developing countries. We will also continue to press for streamlining of the accession process to the World Trade Organisation for least developed countries.
	The coalition Government is firmly committed to open markets and resisting protectionism. The Prime Minister has called for innovative approaches to achieving the trade liberalisation the world needs to drive future growth, through multilateral and bilateral routes and through coalitions of the willing. We support efforts in Geneva to open plurilateral negotiations on liberalising trade in services and we are pressing for early progress on EU bilateral negotiations with Singapore, Canada and India; and for the launching of trade negotiations with Japan and the US. We are determined to ensure that the interests of poor countries remain front and centre as we consider future options for liberalising trade. We will also continue to press for further strengthening of the role of the World Trade Organisation as our main bulwark against protectionism and the guardian of the global rules based system.

Directors

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will estimate the number of company directors or owners of small businesses who are aged under 30 years.

Mark Prisk: BIS does not hold information on the age of all company directors or owners of small businesses.
	The 2010 BIS ‘Small Business Survey’ of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs, defined as those with less than 250 employees) provides information on the age of the respondent to the survey. The respondent may be running the business on their own, or in partnership with others, but the survey only provides information on the age of the respondent themselves.
	As shown in the following table, just 2% of respondents to the survey running an SME were aged less than 30. This equates to more than 90,000 businesses at the start of 2011.
	However, this will be an underestimate because some SME owners aged less than 30 will not be counted if they are co-owners of businesses run with people aged over 30 and they weren't the respondent to the survey.
	
		
			 Table 1: Age of respondent to BIS Small Business Survey 2010 
			 Age of respondent Proportion of all SMEs (%) 
			 18 to 29 2 
			 30 to 39 12 
			 40 to 49 26 
			 Over 50 56 
			 Missing 4 
			 Source: BIS Small Business Survey 2010 
		
	
	An alternative source of information on this subject is the ONS Labour Force Survey, which reports on the age of those in self-employment. The following table shows that in 2011, 12% of the self-employed (or approximately 470,000 people) were aged less than 30. Note that some of these people will be running a business on their own, others will be operating in partnership with others.
	
		
			 Table 2: Age of self-employed, 2011 
			 Age of respondent Proportion of all SMEs (%) 
			 16 to 29 12 
			 30 to 39 20 
			 40 to 49 28 
			 Over 50 41 
			 Source: ONS LabourForceSurvey2011

Driving: Licensing

Gordon Henderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will review the (a) operation of and (b) competition in the market for the supply of identity pictures for driving licences.

Norman Lamb: The Driving Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is responsible for the operation of driving licence applications. However, I understand that customers applying for driving licences and driving licence renewals have a number of options for how they obtain and submit an identity photograph as part of the application process.
	I also understand that there is currently a live competitive procurement under way for a range of DVLA services, including the supply of identity pictures. While I can't comment on the specifics of a procurement process being run by another Department, the process is, of course, subject to EU procurement law which ensures fair competition for public contracts.

Edge Foundation

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what support he has provided the Edge Foundation and its partners for VQ Day 2012.

John Hayes: holding answer 18 June 2012
	I am delighted that we are giving strong support to VQ Day, which takes place this year on 20 June. The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the right hon. Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable) will be attending the main awards ceremony, where he will give a speech in support of the value of vocational learning. He also plans to meet learners, including the award winners, whose experience demonstrates the rich value of vocational learning.

Energy: Meters

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer from the Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change of 22 May 2012, Official Report, column 538W, on energy: meters, what steps his Department is taking to ensure British manufacture and sourcing of smart meters.

Charles Hendry: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Energy and Climate Change.
	The UK has extensive meter design, research, calibration, configuration and manufacturing expertise. In addition to manufacturing, we also expect that there will be considerable opportunities from the installation of smart meters and associated communications supporting the end-to-end smart metering system. DECC has closely involved UK manufacturers in the smart metering programme throughout, via the British Electrotechnical and Allied Manufacturers Association (BEAMA) and SBGI. Manufacturers are therefore well-placed to take best advantage of the opportunities arising from the programme. However, as the roll-out is industry led, it will be for energy suppliers to decide how they source smart meters.

EU Internal Trade

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what further reforms the Government is seeking in the European Single Market.

Norman Lamb: The Government continues to work closely with the Commission, the European Parliament and other member states, to shape policies affecting the single market. UK priorities for reform include strengthening single market implementation, ensuring full implementation of the services directive and supporting the creation of the digital single market. We expect the Commission to bring forward further proposals to strengthen the single market in the autumn. In April, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, my right hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable), attended a meeting of likeminded Ministers in Lithuania to agree a vision for single market reform. A paper setting out shared priorities was subsequently presented to the Competitiveness Council.

EU Internal Trade

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills 
	(1)  what steps he has taken to achieve the aim set out in his letter of 20 February 2012, signed jointly with other EU heads of government, to bring the single market to its next stage of development;
	(2)  what recent discussions he has had with the EU Competition Commissioner on achieving the aim set out in his letter of 20 February 2012, signed jointly with other EU heads of government, to bring the single market to its next stage of development.

Norman Lamb: The Government continues to work closely with the Commission, the European Parliament and other member states, to shape policies affecting the single market. In April, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, my right hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable), attended a meeting of likeminded Ministers in Lithuania to agree a vision for single market reform. A paper setting out shared priorities was subsequently presented to the Competitiveness Council. The Government's efforts to shape the single market agenda are proving to be successful, as is demonstrated by the Commission reports on the implementation of the Services Directive and on Single Market Governance. Both closely reflect UK priorities and are a welcome contribution to efforts to improve the single market.

EU Law

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what progress his Department has made on ending goldplating of EU legislation when transposed to UK law.

Mark Prisk: The coalition agreement commits the Government to end the so-called gold-plating of EU rules, so that British businesses are not disadvantaged relative to their European competitors. The Government's Guiding Principles for EU legislation(1) and revised Transposition Guidance set out how the Government is observing this commitment when transposing new EU legislation in the UK.
	As far as the stock of existing EU-derived regulation is concerned, this Department has taken action to amend the UK's implementation of the EU directive on artists' resale rights. Clarifying UK implementation and the removal of gold-plating of the requirements of the directive resulted in an annual benefit to business of approximately £50,000. The Red Tape Challenge is thematically reviewing the stock of UK legislation, including that for which this Department is responsible. As part of this review, we are examining any examples of gold-plating of EU regulation which are raised during the consultation process.
	1www.bis.gov.uk/policies/bre/improving-eu-regulation/guiding-principles-eu-legislation

Exports

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department has taken to increase exports to (a) Europe, (b) Asia, (c) North America, (d) South America, (e) Australasia and (f) Africa.

Mark Prisk: The Trade and Investment White Paper sets out the Government strategy for maximising and realising the opportunities for UK businesses to export. It includes important steps being taken by Government to increase exports to different global markets. UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) is at the heart of this whole-of-Government effort. With a presence in 96 markets, UKTI provides a range of services which can be tailored to meet the needs of its customers.
	The Government's ambition is to double UK exports to £1 trillion by 2020, with UKTI increasing the number of businesses it helps to 50,000 by 2015. Recent UKTI activities to support these efforts include:
	(a) In Europe UKTI teams continue to support UK exporters, particularly those new to exporting for whom much of Europe represents a good starting point. UKTI is also working with the Council of British Chambers of Commerce in Europe on local pilots to extend our reach to UK exporters. Separately, UKTI has supported a number of trade missions including my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister's visit to Russia, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the right hon. Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable), visit to Germany, and my hon. Friend the Minister of Trade and Investment, my Noble Friend Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint’s recent visits to the Baltic states, Finland, and, jointly with the CBI, to Turkey.
	(b) In Asia UKTI has supported trade visits by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, to India, China, South East Asia and Japan, my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister's visit to Korea, and many other visits by senior Ministers. In addition, the UKTI-directed Asia Task Force has run 18 events since 2010, attracting over 2,000 business people, a quarter of whom were not yet exporting to Asia. UKTI is also working with business-led organisations such as the UK-India Business Council, the China-Britain Business Council and the UK-ASEAN Business Council to provide services to business. We have trade dialogues and business engagement fora with a number of the high growth markets in the region, including China and India, which are aimed at tackling market access issues and creating business opportunities. Moreover, UKTI is supporting Government trade policy goals to complete ambitious Free Trade Agreements with markets including India, Singapore and Malaysia.
	(c) In North America UKTI has assisted 3,000 UK businesses over the past year and supported a dozen ministerial visits in the US alone, including by my noble Friend Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint in April. It is targeting key sectors such as advanced engineering, clean technology, homeland security and ICT. UKTI is also identifying high value opportunities, such as light rail projects in the US, bringing together expertise and facilitating partnerships to help the UK win contracts. Furthermore, it is supporting wider Government trade policy goals through the EU-US High Level Working Group and by pushing for conclusion of the EU/Canada Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement.
	(d) On South America, in February 2012 UKTI delivered regional road-shows around the UK to promote business opportunities. They have attracted over 300 companies. UKTI is also promoting the overall trade relationship between UK and Latin America by setting up a Latin America task force of senior business figures, and has been supporting a number of trade missions by senior Ministers, including my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister's visit to Mexico and Brazil in 2011.
	(e) In Australasia UKTI efforts include supporting a co-ordinated UK approach to high value opportunities in two large infrastructure projects, the North Australia Gas project and Australia's National Broadband Network. These are valued as having more than £54 billion of business accessible to British industry. In addition, UKTI is building relations with Chinese business in Australasia, opening exciting prospects for “triangulation” into other Asia-Pacific markets.
	(f) In Africa my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister undertook a trade visit to South Africa and Nigeria in July 2011 and business opportunities in both North and Sub-Saharan Africa have been promoted through a number of major events for a largely SME audience in 2012. A Sub-Saharan Africa task force and a Libya CEO Forum are amongst fora that have been established to work with business on the growing opportunities in these markets.

Higher Education: Admissions

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many students in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK enrolled on (i) full-time and (ii) part-time (A) further and (B) higher education courses in each year since 2004.

David Willetts: Table 1 shows the number of Government-funded learners participating in further education (FE) in (a) Jarrow parliamentary constituency, (b) South Tyneside local authority, (c) north east region and (d) England, by mode of attendance, for academic years 2004/05 to 2010/11, the latest full years for which final data are available. Information is only available by mode of attendance for 'education and training' provision. The Department does not collect FE information relating to the devolved Administrations.
	
		
			 Table 1: Further education learner participation in education and training provision, by mode of attendance and geography, 2004/05 to 2010/11 
			 Academic year Jarrow South Tyneside North East England Total 
			  Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time 
			 2004/05 1,260 8,400 2,760 16,620 37,120 243,890 726,800 3,473,600 
			 2005/06 1,180 6,320 2,530 12,880 37,530 185,550 748,300 2,853,500 
			 2006/07 1,280 4,240 2,910 8,830 39,620 127,780 784,900 2,024,500 
			 2007/08 1,440 3,490 3,120 7,270 40,350 120,500 806,900 1,873,400 
			 2008/09 1,470 3,780 3,190 8,340 40,900 118,190 812,700 1,753,300 
			 2009/10 1,530 3,050 3,380 7,090 43,660 97,630 857,700 1,543,500 
			 2010/11 1,340 2,550 2,860 5,570 43,020 81,260 835,700 1,264,300 
			 Notes: (1) Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 except for the England Totals which are rounded to the nearest 100. (2) Geography is based upon the home postcode of the learner. The England totals include some postcodes which are not known. Geographic information is based on boundaries of regions as of May 2010. (3) Full-time learners are defined as those learners studying a programme of a minimum of 450 guided learning hours in an academic year. (4) These data include both young people (under 19) and adults (aged 19+) participating in apprenticeships, workplace learning, community learning and education and training provision taken at general further education colleges (including tertiary), sixth form colleges, special colleges (agricultural and horticultural colleges and art and design colleges), specialist colleges and external institutions. (5) Education and training provision covers further education learning delivered mainly in a classroom, workshop or through distance or e-learning (previously learner responsive). Source: Individualised Learner Record 
		
	
	Information on further education and skills participation and achievement by mode of attendance is published in a supplementary table of a quarterly Statistical First Release (SFR). The latest SFR was published on 29 March 2012:
	http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/statisticalfirstrelease/sfr_supplementary_tables/
	Table 2 shows enrolments in UK higher education institutions from (a) Jarrow parliamentary constituency, (b) South Tyneside local authority, (c) north east region and (d) United Kingdom by mode of study for academic year 2004/05 to 2010/11.
	
		
			 Table 2: Higher education enrolments (1)  by mode of study and geography, UK higher education institutions, academic years 2004/05 to 2010/11 
			  Jarrow South Tyneside North East UK 
			 Academic year Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time 
			 2004/05 1,415 890 2,360 1,655 42,240 33,595 1,151,215 787,935 
			 2005/06 1,380 875 2,380 1,545 42,740 34,630 1,184,405 789,790 
			 2006/07 1,385 870 2,355 1,595 43,280 36,715 1,189,390 789,325 
			 2007/08 1,280 905 2,210 1,690 42,080 36,680 1,201,975 762,340 
			 2008/09 1,300 1,005 2,275 1,815 43,105 39,015 1,234,150 792,935 
			 2009/10 1,310 1,020 2,310 1,780 44,080 38,925 1,292,460 795,160 
			 2010/11 1,280 980 2,240 1,695 44,680 36,280 1,312,295 760,775 
			 (1 )Covers students in all years of study. Notes: 1. Figures are based on a HESA standard registration population. 2. Figures are rounded to the nearest five. 3. Figures do not include students enrolled on higher education courses in FE colleges. 4. Parliamentary constituency is derived from the student's postcode. Data for 2010/11 is based on the revised boundaries in the 2010 General Election. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)

Manpower

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what target he has set to reduce headcount across his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: BIS has had to make headcount reductions in order to live within its reduced budget following the 2010 spending review. There were no specific headcount targets for each year, as the aim was to reduce spending and staff costs varied by grade. The following table shows the reduction in staff from 2010 to April 2012.
	
		
			  Headcount at May 2010 Headcount at April 2012 Net reduction 
			 BIS Core (without UK Trade and Investment) 3054 2533 521 
			 BIS Core (with UK Trade and Investment) 3607 3083 524 
		
	
	This information is not held by BIS in respect of its non-departmental public bodies.
	I have approached the chief executives of the Insolvency Service, Companies House, the National Measurement Office, the Intellectual Property Office, UK Space Agency, Ordnance Survey, Met Office, Land Registry and the Skills Funding Agency and they will respond to the hon. Member directly.
	Letter from Malcolm Dawson, dated 12 June 2012
	I write on behalf of Land Registry in response to your Parliamentary Question numbered 110243 tabled on 23 May 2012 which asked the following:
	To ask the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, what target he has set to reduce headcount across his Department its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (o) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.
	I can confirm that Land Registry has not been set any headcount reduction targets by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (or formerly by the Ministry of Justice).
	Internally, we have reduced headcount significantly in recent years as detailed below:
	(a) 2010-11—Headcount reduction achieved of 810 full-time equivalents (FTE);
	(b) 2011-12—Headcount reduction achieved of 638 FTE;
	(c) 2012-13-Nil to date.
	As part of our Accelerated Transformation Programme (ATP), Land Registry has reduced headcount by 44% from 7558 FTE In March 2008 to 4177 FTE currently.
	Although Land Registry has not been set any headcount reduction targets by BIS we have a planning assumption of reducing headcount by 120 FTE in 2012-13 which is in line with the ATP business case.
	We expect this to be achieved through normal turnover.
	I hope that you find this information helpful.
	Letter from John Hirst, dated 25 May 2012
	I am replying on behalf of the Met Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 23 May 2012, UIN 110243 to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	As a Trading Fund the Met Office receives no voted funds and has to sell its services to government and commercial customers so as to make a return on its assets. It pays dividends to BIS out of those returns.
	The Trading Fund model is established to drive an organisation to be as efficient and effective as possible and the identification and delivery of cost savings are a key component of this. In this context, the Met Office is committed to delivering value for money services to both its commercial and government customers. In commercial markets this is driven through competition, and for Government customers through annual cost efficiency targets contained in their customer supplier agreements. These targets are aimed at overall efficiency and do not contain specific targets to reduce headcount. However, our benchmarking shows that we are in the upper decile of UK government organisations for back office costs and are amongst the most efficient meteorological services in the world.
	I hope this helps.
	Letter from John Alty, dated 14 June 2012
	I am responding in respect of the Intellectual Property Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled 23rd May 2012, to the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	The IPO is an Executive Agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The IPO has not reduced headcount over this period. It has made efficiency savings through measures other than headcount reductions.
	Letter from Peter Mason, dated 25 May 2012
	I am responding in respect of the National Measurement Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 23 May 2012, asking the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills about targets to reduce headcount across the Department and its agencies.
	Although not formally set as targets, the Agency's Corporate Plan, approved by Ministers each year, projects employment numbers. Continued efficiency measures have involved reductions in headcount in our traditional activities, but overall numbers have in fact been set to increase for each of 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 as we take on new responsibilities.
	Letter from Tim Moss, dated 30 May 2012
	I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled 23 May 2012, U1N 110243 to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	Companies House announced in 2010 that it estimated its headcount would reduce by about 200-250 in the period 2010/14. At the end of March 2010 our headcount stood at 1063; since then we have reduced our headcount in each year as follows:
	
		
			  Headcount 
			 March 2011 1044 
			 March 2012 923 
		
	
	We are also forecasting that the headcount at the end of 2012/13 will be 892. This will represent a total headcount reduction since 2010 of 171, which suggests our forecast of a reduction in headcount by 200-250 by the end of 2013/14 will be broadly correct.
	Letter from Dr Vanessa Lawrence CB, dated 24 () May 2012
	As Director General and Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey, I have been asked to contact you in response to your Parliamentary Question asking the Secretary of State of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what target he has set to reduce headcount across his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.
	In line with Ministerially agreed Business Plans, Ordnance Survey reduced its headcount from a baseline of 1187 to 1108 in the year 2010-2011. In 2011-12 headcount was further reduced to 1045. Ordnance Survey's 2011-16 Business Plan, the most recent approved at Ministerial level, sets out a 5-year target reduction in headcount from 1108 to 911 over the period 2011-16. Ordnance Survey is on course to deliver to this target.
	Letter from David Williams, dated 24 May 2012
	Thank you for your question addressed to the Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, what target he has set to reduce headcount across his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement. 110243
	The UK Space Agency became an executive agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on 1 April 2011 and has not been set any headcount targets. In 2012/13 a review of its staff needs will be undertaken.
	Letter from Stephen Speed, dated 25 May 2012
	The Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills has asked me to reply to your question, what target he has set to reduce headcount across his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.
	No target has been set for headcount reduction. However, The Insolvency Service ran voluntary exit schemes in 2010-11 and 2011-12. the aim of which was to reduce staffing levels in line with falling numbers of compulsory insolvency cases. The 2010-11 exit scheme resulted in 470 staff leaving in the following financial year. The consequence of the 2011-12 scheme was to exit 68 employees; two in 2011-12 and the remainder in early 2012-13.
	Letter from Geoff Russell, dated 29 May 2012
	Thank you for your question in asking the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, what target he has set to reduce headcount across his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13.
	Please be advised that the Agency did not have a specific target to reduce headcount, but did have a reduced budget over the CSR period. To live within the reduced Admin budget the Agency had to reduce its headcount, which was achieved in 2010/11 through a Voluntary Early Release scheme, and in 2011/12 through a Voluntary Early Release Scheme, and a reorganisation which resulted in a few Voluntary and 3 compulsory redundancies.
	In total the Agency (inc. National Apprenticeship Service) headcount reduced from 1,866 in March 2010 to 1,640 in March 2011 (a reduction of 226) and then to 1,244 in March 2012 (a further reduction of 396).

Manufacturing Industries

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much his Department has spent on funding the Automating Manufacturing campaign; how much of the budget for the campaign in 2012-13 remains to be spent; and what steps he plans to take to enable companies and organisations to bid for unspent funds.

Mark Prisk: The automation programme that this Department is supporting with the British Automation and Robot Association is a £600,000 programme over two financial years 2011-12 and 2012-13. The programme opened in September 2011 and by the end of March 2012 expenditure of nearly £162,000 had been incurred. Programme activity is increasing and at this stage we expect the full budget will be used over the lifetime of the project. Opportunities remain for companies to apply for support under the programme.

Mutual Societies

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff who will transfer from his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies workforce to a mutual in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) did not transfer any staff to a mutual in 2011/12. There are no plans to transfer any BIS staff to a mutual in 2012-13
	Information concerning non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally by BIS and it could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	I have approached the chief executives of the Insolvency Service, Companies House, the National Measurement Office, the Intellectual Property Office, UK Space Agency, Ordnance Survey, Met Office, Land Registry and the Skills Funding Agency and they will respond to the Hon. Member directly.
	Letter from Malcolm Dawson, dated 30 May 2012
	I write on behalf of Land Registry in response to your Parliamentary Question numbered 110205 tabled on 23 May 2012 which asked the following:
	To ask the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff who will transfer from his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies workforce to a mutual in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13.
	At the current time we have no plans or targets to transfer any staff to a mutual in either 2011-12 or 2012-13.
	I hope that you find this information helpful.
	Letter from John Hirst, dated 25 May 2012
	I am replying on behalf of the Met Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 23 May 2012, to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, about the transfer of staff to a mutual.
	No Met Office staff transferred to a mutual in 2011-12 and the Met Office has no plans to transfer any staff to a mutual in 2012-13.
	I hope this helps.
	Letter from John Alty, dated 29 May 2012
	I am responding in respect of the Intellectual Property Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled 23rd May 2012, to the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	The IPO is an Executive Agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). It has not transferred any members of its workforce to a mutual during 2011-12 and does not anticipate transferring any members in 2012-13.
	Letter from Peter Mason, dated 25 May 2012
	I am responding in respect of the National Measurement Office (NMO) to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 23 May 2012, asking the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills about the estimated number of staff who will transfer from the workforce of the Department and its agencies to mutuals.
	NMO does not have any staff who transferred from its workforce to a mutual in 2011-12 or are expected to transfer in 2012-13.
	Letter from Tim Moss, dated 28 May 2012
	I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled 23 May 2012, to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	No staff have transferred from Companies House's workforce to a mutual in 2011/12 and there are no plans for any to transfer to a mutual in 2012/13.
	Letter from Dr Vanessa Lawrence CB, dated 24 May 2012
	As Director General and Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey, I have been asked to contact you in response to your Parliamentary Question asking the Secretary of State of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff who will transfer from his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies workforce to a mutual in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13.
	Ordnance Survey has not made any such estimate as Ordnance Survey does not presently envisage any transfer of staff to mutuals.
	Letter from David Williams, dated 24 May 2012
	Thank you for your question addressed to the Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff who will transfer from his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies workforce to a mutual in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13.
	The UK Space Agency, an executive agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills had none of its workforce transfer to a mutual during 2011-12 and has no plans to transfer any staff to a mutual.
	Letter from Stephen Speed, dated May 2012
	The Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills has asked me to reply to your question, what estimate he has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff who will transfer from his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies workforce to a mutual in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13.
	The Insolvency Service transferred no staff to a mutual in 2011-12 and has no plans for any such transfers in 2012-13.
	Letter from Geoff Russell, dated 29 May 2012
	Thank you for your question in asking the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff who will transfer from his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies workforce to a mutual in 2011-12 and 2012-13.
	Please be advised that transfers for full-time equivalent staff in the Skills Funding Agency to a mutual in 2011-12 and 2012-13 is nil.

New Businesses

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many start-up companies his Department estimates began (a) nationally and (b) in North Swindon constituency in the last year for which figures are available.

Norman Lamb: A total of 476,547 companies were incorporated with Companies House between 1 May 2011 and 30 April 2012. However, until the first accounts are due to be filed there is no way of Companies House knowing whether they are trading, or not.
	Companies House can only identify regional statistics by postcode. Using postcodes SN25, SN26, SN2 2, SN2 4, SN2 5, SN2 6, SN2 7, SN2 8, SN3 4, SN3 5, SN6 7 they have identified that 410 companies have been incorporated between 1 May 2011 and 30 April 2012.

New Businesses

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many start-up companies his Department estimates failed (a) nationally and (b) in North Swindon constituency in the last year for which figures are available.

Norman Lamb: Companies House dissolved 300,267 companies from the register between 1 May 2011 and 30 April 2012. They are, however, unable to say how many companies failed as this information is not recorded, and it is possible that some may never have traded since they were first incorporated.
	Companies House can only identify regional statistics by postcode. Using postcodes SN25, SN26, SN2 2, SN2 4, SN2 5, SN2 6, SN2 7, SN2 8, SN3 4, SN3 5, SN6 7 they have identified 194 companies have been dissolved between 1 May 2011 and 30 April 2012.

New Businesses

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department is taking to encourage people to start up businesses.

Mark Prisk: We want to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business, and for the next decade to be the most entrepreneurial and dynamic in Britain's history. That is why, in January, the Prime Minister launched “Business in You”, a major year-long campaign, to inspire people to realise their business ambitions and to highlight the range of support available for start-ups and growing businesses.
	We recognise that these are challenging times for new and existing businesses and we have introduced a range of measures to encourage people to set up their own business and support to help businesses survive and grow.
	Encouraging an entrepreneurial mindset
	We are supporting a number of measures aimed at inspiring young people to think about setting up their own business, including:
	Supporting every school to develop and run its own business through the “Enterprise Village”
	www.enterprisevillage.org.uk
	Supporting the Premier League in developing its “Premier League Enterprise Academy” model, enabling football clubs to foster enterprise among young people, principally in deprived areas.
	Supporting the “Inspiring the Future” initiative
	www.inspiringthefuture.org
	which aims to get 100,000 entrepreneurs to volunteer to go into schools to talk about their businesses and career choices.
	Supporting the development of “Tenner” (a programme providing schoolchildren with ten pounds to fund a business idea and to grow their money).
	Supporting the creation of student-led enterprise societies and ensuring their support is accessible to all students in HE and most of FE by 2015.
	Ensuring individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can access the support and advice they need to start and grow their business
	We have transformed the way that we enable people to access the information, guidance and advice they need to start and grow a business. We have put in place a range of services including;
	An improved
	www.businesslink.gov.uk
	website including “My New Business”, a comprehensive start-up service, and a new Growth and Improvement Service.
	A Business Link helpline which will support those who are unable to access the internet.
	A mentoring portal
	www.mentorsme.co.uk
	providing an easy route to find experienced business mentors.
	“GrowthAccelerator”
	www.growthaccelerator.com
	a new three year programme which will provide high quality coaching support for up to 26,000 SMEs with high growth potential.
	Ensuring businesses can access the finance they need
	Ensuring the flow of credit to viable SMEs is essential for supporting growth and is a core priority for this Government. Government has:
	Introduced a new National Loan Guarantee Scheme: up to £20 billion of guarantees for bank funding will be available over two years allowing banks to offer lower cost lending to SMEs.
	Increased the funds available to invest through the Business Finance Partnership (BFP) to £1.2 billion. Government has invited the first round of proposals to help businesses access non-bank finance through the BFP, and will allocate £100 million of the BFP to invest through non-traditional lending channels.
	Announced the continuation of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme until 2014/15, providing, subject to demand, over £2 billion in total over the next four years.
	Announced continuation of the Government's Enterprise Capital Funds programme, increasing our commitment by £200 million over the next four years, providing for more than £300 million of venture capital investment to address the equity gap for early stage innovative SMEs.
	Launched a new £10 million Startup Loans scheme to provide advice and start-up finance for 18 to 24-year-olds looking to start their own business.
	Encouraged Business Angel investment through a new £50 million Business Angel Co-Investment Fund.
	Welcomed the report of the industry review of non-bank lending chaired by Tim Breedon and will take forward its recommendations over the course of this year, including: considering how to simplify access to Government support for smaller businesses; encouraging prompt payment by larger firms; and supporting industry work to remove barriers to alternative sources of finance.
	Introduced a Regional Growth Fund, a £2.4 billion fund operating across England from 2011 to 2015. It supports projects and programmes that lever private sector investment creating economic growth and sustainable employment.
	Measures to encourage entrepreneurship in specific groups:
	Introduced 24 Enterprise Zones across England to generate businesses and jobs, helping to rebalance the economy. Benefits to business include a simplified planning regime, a business rate discount worth up to £275,000 over a five-year period and Government support to ensure that super-fast broadband is rolled out throughout the zones.
	Be the Boss—A £5 million fund to allow the Royal British Legion to help ex-service personnel to set up and grow businesses by reducing the costs and barriers associated with self-employment and start-ups, including mentoring support.
	Working with social landlords to remove red tape and encourage more tenants to start up businesses.

Ofcom: Fines

Ian Murray: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what fines were imposed on businesses by the regulator Ofcom in each financial year from 2000-01 to 2011-12.

Norman Lamb: holding answer 18 June 2012
	The matter raised is a regulatory issue and as such is the responsibility of the independent regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which is accountable to Parliament rather than Ministers.
	Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of Ofcom, Ed Richards, to reply directly to the hon. Member. Copies of the chief executive's letter will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Pay

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many staff working for his Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: As required by all Departments, The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) recently published a list of all those off-payroll costing £58,200 per annum or above. As part of this exercise, which included arm’s length bodies, BIS also identified 201 people off-payroll who were under this threshold. There are many cases where it is sensible to use short term contractors or agency staff to fill specialist roles where BIS does not have expertise, e.g. ICT. BIS is now undertaking a full review of all its off-payroll staff to ensure compliance with the new tax arrangements policy.
	I have asked chief executives of the Executive Agencies to respond directly to the hon. Member.
	Letter from David Williams, dated May 2012
	Thank you for your question addressed to the Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff working for his Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum and if he will make a statement. (110812)
	The UK Space Agency, an executive agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills currently does not have any staff that are employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum.
	Letter from Malcolm Dawson, dated 11 June 2012
	I write on behalf of Land Registry in response to your Parliamentary Question numbered 110812 tabled on 24 May 2012 which asked the following:
	To ask the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff working for his Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum; and if he will make a statement.
	Land Registry currently employs two contractors costing loss than £58.200 per annum, both of whom are Marketing and Communications Executives. Land Registry has recently gained approval from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to extend those appointments until April 2013 whilst we seek to fill the posts permanently.
	Note that, in addition, the Independent Complaints Reviewer and Deputy Independent Complaints Reviewer are on contracts for service and their costs are lower than £58,200 each per annum. Their details have already been included in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills list of off-payroll engagements which was recently published alongside HM Treasury's Review of the tax arrangements of public sector appointees.
	I hope you find this information useful.
	Letter from Dr Vanessa Lawrence CB, dated 11 June 2012
	As Director General and Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey, I have been asked to reply to you in response to your Parliamentary Question asking the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills “how many staff working for his Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum; and if he will make a statement”.
	As at 31 January 2012, Ordnance Survey had a total of 73 staff who met this criterion. This number includes 48 staff who are employed through an Agency to provide temporary cover - e.g.: for maternity leave in business critical roles. These Agency staff are remunerated through PAYE arrangements with their Agency. The remaining 25 individuals are provided to Ordnance Survey via contracts with employment businesses, to undertake specific highly specialised technical tasks under short term arrangements. Their pay arrangements are defined between themselves and the employment business.
	I hope this information is of use.
	Letter from John Alty, dated 28 May 2012
	I am responding in respect of the Intellectual Property Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled 28(th) May 2012, to the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	There are 18 people employed by the IPO not on payroll below this limit. They are engaged through employment agencies mainly to cover basic administration tasks and other short term requirements ie where technology will make the posts redundant in the near future or maternity cover etc.
	Letter from Graham Horne, dated 30 May 2012
	The Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills has asked me to reply to your question, how many staff working for his Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum; and if he will make a statement.
	The Insolvency Service's records show that as of 30 May 2012 , 115 off payroll workers (temps) are in temporary posts throughout the country.
	Letter from Ann Lewis, dated 18 May 2012
	I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled 24 May 2012, UIN 110812 to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	Companies House employs no members of staff through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum.
	Letter from Peter Mason, dated 1 June 2012
	I am responding in respect of the National Measurement Office (NMO) to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 24 May 2012, asking the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills about the number of staff working for his Department and its agencies employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum.
	During the exercise to compile the information published on 23 May we identified a further 6 individuals who were being paid at the equivalent of less than £58,200. None of these were engaged for more than 58 days or at a cost greater than £15,000 each for the year to 31 January 2012.
	Letter from Geoff Russell, dated 31 May 2012
	Thank you for your question in asking the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff working for his Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum.
	Please be advised that the Skills Funding Agency currently has 14 discrete service providers who are sourced via agencies (through Government procured framework contracts). These 14 are classed as 'off payroll' and fall below the £58,200 threshold. The third party Agency pays the individuals under their own contracts.
	Letter from John Hirst, dated 25 May 2012
	I am replying on behalf of the Met Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 24 May 2012, UIN 110812 to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	No Met Office staff are employed through off-payroll engagements, including any costing less than £58,200 per annum.
	I hope this helps.

Post Offices: Bexley

David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many operational post offices there were in (a) Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency and (b) the London borough of Bexley in each of the last three years.

Norman Lamb: Post Office Ltd is responsible for operational matters concerning the Post Office network, which includes the information requested. I have therefore asked Paula Vennells, the chief executive of Post Office Ltd, to respond directly to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of the House.

Postcomm: Fines

Ian Murray: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what fines were imposed on businesses by the former postal regulator Postcomm in each financial year from 2000-01 until its transfer to Ofcom.

Norman Lamb: holding answer 18 June 2012
	The matter raised is a regulatory issue and as such is the responsibility of the independent regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which took over regulatory responsibility for postal services in October 2011, and is accountable to Parliament rather than Ministers.
	Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of Ofcom, Ed Richards, to reply directly to the hon. Member. Copies of the chief executive's letter will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Recruitment

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 21 May 2012, Official Report, column 489W, on recruitment, to what extent his Department and its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies used name-blank CVs or the blind sift function on the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment system to recruit staff in the last year.

Norman Lamb: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is not yet using the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment system to recruit staff.
	I have asked chief executives of the Executive agencies to respond directly to the right hon. Member. This information is not held by BIS in respect of non-departmental public bodies.
	Letter from John Hirst, dated 12 June 2012
	I am replying on behalf of the Met Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 8 June 2012, UIN 110971 to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	The Met Office recruitment process uses a system of blind sifting for all job applications.
	I hope this helps.
	Letter from Peter Mason, dated 11 June 2012
	I am responding in respect of the National Measurement Office (NMO) to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 8 June 2012, asking the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills about the use by the Department and its executive agencies of name-blank CVs or the blind sift function on the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment system in recruiting staff in the last year.
	The NMO has not to date used name-blank CVs and as we are not yet participating in the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment system we do not have access to its blind sift function. Currently all applicants to NMO must complete a full application form and we do not accept CV-only applications.
	Letter from David Williams, dated June 2012
	Thank you for your question addressed to the Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2012, Official Report, column 489W, on recruitment, to what extent his Department and its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies used name-blank CVs or the blind sift function on the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment system to recruit staff in the last year.
	The UK Space Agency, an executive agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, has not used name-blank CVs or the blind-sift function on the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment system to recruit staff during the past year.
	Letter from Malcolm Dawson, dated 12 June 2012
	I write on behalf of Land Registry in response to your Parliamentary Question 110971 tabled on 8 June 2012 which asked the following:
	To ask the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2012, Official Report, column 489W, on recruitment, to what extent his Department and its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies used name-blank CVs or the blind sift function on the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment system to recruit staff in the last year.
	I can confirm that Land Registry has not used name-blank CVs or the blind sift function on the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment system to recruit staff in the last year.
	I hope that you find this information useful.
	Letter from Tim Moss, dated 12 June 2012
	I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled 8 June 2012, UIN 110971 to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	Companies House does not currently use name-blank CVs and, although we use the CS Jobs Portal to advertise vacancies, we do not currently use an e-recruitment package to process applications.
	Letter from Dr Vanessa Lawrence CB, dated 11 June 2012
	As Director General and Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey, I have been asked to reply to you in response to your Parliamentary Question asking The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills "pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2012, Official Report, column 489W, on recruitment, to what extent his Department and its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies used name-blank CVs or the blind sift function on the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment system to recruit staff in the last year".
	Given the general presumption against recruitment within Government at the present time, Ordnance Survey's recruitment activity has been very limited, to business-critical roles, over the past 24 months. Ordnance Survey does not have access to the Blind Sift Service on the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment system, but has received 'name-blank' CV's from some recruitment agencies. However these can result in duplicate applications and so Ordnance Survey prefers to seek named applications in the interests of efficiency.
	I hope this information is of use.
	Letter from John Alty, dated 15 June 2012
	I am responding in respect of the Intellectual Property Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled 8th June 2012, to the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	The Intellectual Property Office does not currently use the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment system.
	Letter from Graham Horne, dated 18 June 2012
	The Minister of State, Department for Business, innovation and Skills has asked me to reply to your question pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2012, Official Report, column 489W on recruitment, to what extent his Department and its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies used name-blank CVs or the blind sift function on the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment systems to recruit staff in the last year
	The Insolvency Service does not use name-blank CVs or the blind sift function on the CSR e-recruitment system as we do not use the system.
	Letter from Geoff Russell, dated 19 June 2012
	Thank you for your question in asking the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2012, Official Report, column 489W, on recruitment, to what extent his Department and its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies used name-blank CVs or the blind sift function on the Civil Service Resourcing e-recruitment system to recruit staff in the last year.
	Please be advised that the Skills Funding Agency (the Agency) does not use the Civil Service E-Recruitment system. The Agency uses its own internal l-Recruitment system and candidate names are visible to recruiting managers. However, managers do not have access to diversity monitoring data of candidates.

Regulation

Julian Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether he has had discussions with Ministerial colleagues on including European legislation in the quarterly statements on regulation that are published by central Government departments.

Mark Prisk: holding answer 18 June 2012
	Yes. The Statement of New Regulation, published twice a year, currently includes a commentary on the action the Government is taking in relation to European regulation. The statement also now includes details of regulations being scrapped as a result of Red Tape Challenge. Expanding the statements to provide an overview of forthcoming measures that transpose European legislation is something that I have asked the Better Regulation Executive to examine.

Research: Expenditure

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment his Department has made of the potential for allowing the recovery of research and development spend where that spend is contracted out to contract research organisations; and if he will make a statement.

David Willetts: holding answer 18 June 2012
	This is an issue for companies seeking R&D tax credit relief on research and development spend. As this is a taxation policy it is the responsibility of HM Treasury.

Retail Trade: Redundancy

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills 
	(1)  if he will estimate the number of (a) shops and (b) jobs lost as a result of the closure of high street chains in the last four years;
	(2)  how many high street chains have closed in the last five years.

Mark Prisk: It is not possible to single out job losses and shop closures attributable to “high street chains” specifically. However, the Office for National Statistics does collect data on the retail sector in general.
	In the four-year period between 2007 and 2010, over 96,000 enterprises in the retail sector closed down. However, due to the creation of new enterprises the number of retail companies declined by less than 15,000 over this period.
	The following table lists the number of enterprise closures and the count of existing enterprises in each of these years.
	
		
			  Retail enterprise closures Count of existing retail enterprises 
			 2007 23,550 230,995 
			 2008 23,025 223,475 
			 2009 25,830 221,120 
			 2010 23,765 216,375 
			 Source: ONS Business Demography 
		
	
	Between the years 2007 and 2011 the number of employee jobs in the retail sector fell by 96,000 to 2.8 million.
	
		
			  Retail employee jobs 
			 2007 2,909 
			 2008 2,941 
			 2009 2,872 
			 2010 2,816 
			 Source: ONS Employee Jobs

Student Loans Company

Nadine Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether past experience of improving customer service is one of the selection criteria for the new head of the Student Loans Company.

David Willetts: The post of chief executive of the Student Loans Company (SLC) is an executive appointment, and recruitment and appointment to the post is a matter for the SLC Board. In conjunction with Scottish ministers, I am responsible for the final approval of SLC's recommended candidate.
	The candidate brief for the new chief executive requires candidates to demonstrate a proven track record of successfully leading complex customer-facing organisations. The board will set his or her performance objectives.

Students: Loans

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether his Department is commissioning the design and purchase of a computer system to administer 24+ Advanced Learning Loans through the Student Loans Company; what the likely costs are of the computer system; and what the timetable is for the project to be operational.

John Hayes: holding answer 14 June 2012
	To make available 24+ Advanced Learning Loans, we are building on systems already in place for higher education, working with the Student Loans Company and HM Revenue and Customs. In doing so, the use of existing technical architecture will be supplemented with some new service hardware components and platform upgrades. Our emphasis is on minimising additional cost and bureaucracy.
	The loans system will go live on 31 March 2013.

Students: Loans

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what eligibility there will be for 24+ learners to access Advanced Learning Loans for a qualification at the same level as already obtained, but in a different subject area.

John Hayes: holding answer 18 June 2012
	There will be no restrictions to accessing loans based upon prior attainment. However, where an individual has already had access to a 24+ Advanced Learning Loan to complete a course they would not be eligible to receive a subsequent loan to complete the same type of course at the same level, even if that was in a different subject area. Learners will be eligible to receive subsequent loans to undertake courses at different levels or of different types in order to support progression.

Students: Loans

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what consultation he has had with organisations representing post-24 learners with special educational needs about support to access advanced learning loans and to manage them.

John Hayes: In August 2011 the Government held a public consultation on proposals contained in 'New Challenges, New Chances', including 24+ Advanced Learning Loans. The Government received responses from a wide range of organisations including those representing post-24 learners with special educational needs.

Students: Work Experience

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills 
	(1)  what estimate his Department has made of the average charge to be made by universities to sandwich students during their year in industry under the new arrangements for tuition fees;
	(2)  whether his Department has issued guidelines to universities on how to calculate their charge to university sandwich students during their year in industry.

David Willetts: holding answer 18 June 2012
	The information requested is not available.
	The Government sets maximum tuition charge amounts for sandwich course placement years.
	For sandwich course placement years in the 2012/13 academic year:
	The maximum tuition charge for courses that began before 1 September 2012 is £1,725 (as set out in the Student Fees (Amounts) Regulations 2004 (as amended));
	The maximum tuition charge for courses starting on or after 1 September 2012 is £4,500 (as set out in the Higher Education (Higher Amount) Regulations 2010 (as amended)).
	As independent institutions, universities are responsible for setting a tuition charge that they deem to be appropriate, within the limits set in legislation.

Students: Work Experience

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether his Department issues guidelines to universities on the services they should offer to university sandwich students during their year in industry.

David Willetts: holding answer 18 June 2012
	The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not issue guidance to universities on the services they should offer to sandwich students during their year in industry. As independent institutions, universities are responsible for their own affairs and they decide on the services they provide to their students.
	Professor Sir Tim Wilson's independent review of business-university collaboration makes a recommendation on encouraging the provision and uptake of sandwich degree courses. The Government is currently considering the recommendations and will provide its formal response to the Wilson Review shortly.

Working Hours

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the average number of hours worked by UK workers compared to workers in other EU countries.

Norman Lamb: The UK participates in the European Union Labour Force Survey which is conducted in the 27 member states of the European Union. The most recent figures available from this survey are for the year 2011. The following table sets out the average number of actual weekly hours of work for all those in employment across EU member states for that year. The figures quoted cover all workers (i.e. all employees, the self-employed and those on government training schemes, both full- and part-time) as this is the information that has been requested.
	If only full-time workers are included in the calculation then the UK is above the EU average. Therefore, a second table has been included to show full-time workers only.
	
		
			 Full-time and part-time workers 
			 Country Hours 
			 Greece 40.9 
			 Czech Republic 40.3 
			 Bulgaria 40.2 
			 Poland 39.5 
			 Slovakia 39.5 
			 Romania 39.2 
			 Hungary 39.1 
			 Estonia 38.6 
			 Cyprus 38.6 
			 Latvia 38.6 
			 Slovenia 38.4 
			 Lithuania 38.3 
			 Portugal 38.0 
			 Luxembourg 37.8 
			 Malta 37.7 
			 Spain 37.5 
			 Italy 37.0 
			 EU 27 average 36.9 
			 Belgium 36.8 
			 France 36.8 
			 Austria 36.6 
			 Finland 36.4 
			 Sweden 35.7 
			 Germany 35.6 
			 UK 35.3 
			 Denmark 34.9 
			 Ireland 34.9 
			 Netherlands 31.7 
		
	
	
		
			 Full-time workers only 
			 Country Hours 
			 Greece 42.4 
			 Austria 42.1 
			 Germany 41.8 
			 Netherlands 41.5 
			 Belgium 41.4 
			 Czech Republic 41.3 
			 Luxembourg 41.3 
			 Portugal 41.3 
			 UK 41.1 
		
	
	
		
			 Poland 41.1 
			 EU 27 average 40.9 
			 Cyprus 40.8 
			 Slovenia 40.8 
			 Romania 40.7 
			 Spain 40.7 
			 Bulgaria 40.7 
			 Estonia 40.6 
			 Slovakia 40.4 
			 Malta 40.4 
			 Latvia 40.3 
			 Hungary 40.3 
			 Italy 39.9 
			 Denmark 39.9 
			 Lithuania 39.9 
			 France 39.8 
			 Sweden 39.8 
			 Ireland 39.7 
			 Finland 39.0

Working Hours: EU Law

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many and what proportion of workers worked (a) more and (b) less than the hours specified in the working time directive in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

Norman Lamb: The working time directive sets a cap on weekly working time of 48 hours averaged over a 17-week period. In the UK (and other EU member states) individuals can choose to work longer than an average of 48 hours per week by choosing to ‘opt-out’ of this weekly limit by notifying their employer in writing.
	The Labour Force Survey is published by the Office of National Statistics. Using these data the numbers of workers working (a) more and (b) less than 48 hours is as follows:
	
		
			  Total workers Number of workers working less than 48 hours per week Number of workers working more than 48 hours per week Proportion of workers working less than 48 hours per week  (%) Proportion of workers working more than 48 hours per week  (%) 
			 2012 29,051,824 24,996,006 4,055,818 86.0 14.0 
			 2011 28,222,435 24,146,030 4,076,405 85.6 14.4 
			 2010 27,807,751 23,867,519 3,940,232 85.8 14.2 
			 2009 28,224,245 24,231,721 3,992,524 85.9 14.1 
			 2008 28,544,720 24,223,680 4,321,040 84.9 15.1 
			 2007 28,099,607 23,971,512 4,128,095 85.3 14.7 
			 2006 28,025,421 23,809,920 4,215,501 85.0 15.0 
			 2005 28,176,170 23,527,102 4,649,068 83.5 16.5 
			 2004 27,658,088 23,180,611 4,477,477 83.8 16.2 
			 2003 27,378,642 22,816,346 4,562,296 83.3 16.7 
			 2002 26,974,026 22,325,043 4,648,983 82.8 17.2 
			 Source: Q1 Labour Force Survey, all in employment, based on usual hours worked 
		
	
	The values above include all workers, i.e. employees, the self-employed and those on Government training schemes. It should therefore be noted that these figures include those who are not covered by the working time directive.
	Also, the Labour Force Survey samples a one week period rather than the 17-week reference period outlined in UK legislation.

Working Hours: EU Law

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the effect of the implementation of the European working time directive on (a) family life and (b) individual mental health and stress levels.

Norman Lamb: I refer the hon. Member to the answer my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr Davey) gave on 24 January 2012, Official Report, columns 233-34W, to his earlier parliamentary question on the assessment made of the effect of the implementation of the European working time directive on family life.
	With respect to individual mental health and stress levels, the 5th European Working Conditions Survey (2010)(1) found that, within the EU, the UK has the second lowest proportion of those in employment reporting that their work affects their health or causes them to suffer from stress. In terms of work life balance, 87% of UK workers said their working hours fit family/social commitments outside work well or very well, the third highest proportion in the EU.
	(1) Fifth European Working Conditions Survey 2010 European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions